Syphoning Idaho’s Water to the Globalists

Deceptive legislation, sneaky regulatory agencies, tricky treaties, and Gov. Brad Little, are handing over Idaho’s water rights to the globalists — and what you can do about it.

The issues surrounding Idaho’s water are mind-bogglingly complex, comprising a multi-faceted labyrinth of rules, regulations, and political shenaniganry. It’s enough to make you drink! It did me while researching and compiling this article. But one thing became clear, as I hope this article will show: We the People’s sovereignty (supreme authority) over Idaho’s water use is being syphoned off by the GOP establishment and diverted into the hands of globalists.

This article barely skims the surface, but I hope you will come away with just enough intel to become an informed citizen and to take action with others. I provided a Take Action section at the end to get you started.

Water Rights

Let’s start with Idaho’s Constitution, Article XV – Water Rights

SECTION 1. USE OF WATERS A PUBLIC USE. The use of all waters now appropriated, or that may hereafter be appropriated for sale, rental or distribution; also of all water originally appropriated for private use, but which after such appropriation has heretofore been, or may hereafter be sold, rented, or distributed, is hereby declared to be a public use, and subject to the regulations and control of the state in the manner prescribed by law.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources was established to be the custodian of the ‘water rights’ of Idahoans (Article XV, section 7). According to their website, they define ‘water rights’ as follows: “A water right is authorization to use water in a prescribed manner, not to own the water itself. Without diversion and beneficial use, there is no water right.”

Water rights means water use, NOT ownership. No ONE (person, group, corporation, etc) owns Idaho’s water. That includes the water in your well, the aquifer under your property, or the canal water flowing through your property. And you want to keep it that way.

Legislation

There were 32 pieces of legislation proposed to the 2021 Idaho legislature pertaining just to water. You can view all legislation by subject here. Scroll down the list alphabetically until you reach water. I started with legislation that is congruent with our state’s Constitution, just to show you what good legislation looks like.

THE GOOD

House Committee Resolution 21 by Rep. Dorothy Moon (Dist. 8)

HCR directed the Idaho Department of Water Resources, “to continue to work expeditiously with local water users to complete a comprehensive settlement that resolves current tensions and conflicts over the use of Lemhi Basin high flows that, to the best of the abilities of the participating parties and in the spirit of compromise and resolution, is consistent with past practices, future needs, and Idaho law.”

Senate Joint Memorial 103 by State Affairs Committee

SJM 103 was written in response to Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson’s proposal to breach four dams on the lower Snake River to “save” salmon populations. It states, “Idaho legislature recognizes the Columbia/Snake River system as part of the United States marine highway network. Therefore be it resolved … that Idaho opposes the removal or breaching of the dams on the Columbia/Snake River system and its tributaries, has sovereignty of its water resources, prohibits contributions of water from Idaho reservoirs for flow augmentation except those expressly authorized by state law, contends that efforts for further recovery of fish must be based on sound science, and supports maintenance and multiple use benefits of the Columbia Snake River system.” Nice work, guys.

THE BAD

House Bill 25 by the Resources and Conservation Committee

Stay-at-home soccer mom, Rosa Martinez, a certified crime intelligence analyst, and a candidate for State Senate Dist. 20, after learning Idaho would be receiving CARES and FEMA money, knew those funds would come with federal strings. She wasn’t alone in her concerns. Along with Health Freedom Idaho, Matinez sounded the alarm to legislators early last year. Watch her YouTube interview on Shane Talks Politics here.

“When they come for your food, your water, and your land, you know it’s time,” she said. For her, HB 25 amounted to a “government giveaway” of Idaho’s park lands (water) under the guise of Governor Brad Little’s Red Tape Reduction Act. The executive order claims to “eliminate inactive provisions of law.” HB 25 repealed nine existing laws protecting state parks deemed “no longer necessary for the operation of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.” It’s no coincidence that the parks — Wolcott Lake, American Falls reservoir, and Cascade reservoir — are adjacent to (yep) water. It passed unanimously and was signed by the Governor on March 17, 2021.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 137 by State Affairs Committee

When introduced on the Senate floor in March 2020, SCR 137 purported, “Directing the Idaho Water Resource Board to work expeditiously with local water users to develop a comprehensive settlement regarding supply demands in the Lemhi River Basin.” But according to James Whittaker, a resident of Salmon, Idaho, SCR 137 amounts to “an attempt to castrate the Court’s ‘general provisions’ to use the high flows of 27 tributaries from the Lemhi River, enumerated in the Snake River Basin adjudication, using sovereign immunity. The devil is in the details,” he adds. “Most people don’t know about the details of SCR 137.” Whittaker contends, “The state has created (by any rule or mechanism imaginable) to take our water and sell it out of state, and away from the rural communities — devastating them one by one.” That mechanism is none other than the Idaho Department of Water Resources, which Whittaker contends is not following state statutes or rules.

Idaho Department of Fish & Game is a devil that Whitaker has spent thousands of dollars trying to fight off. They want to protect a species of fish that can’t even survive in his water because it dries up during summer and has spring run-off. 

THE UGLY

Senate Bill 1015 by the Health & Welfare Committee

This bill repeals Section 37-2102 of Idaho Code, protecting domestic water.  So, why would legislators vote to repeal a law protecting domestic water? A look at Section 37-2102 doesn’t seem to make sense. Below is a highlighted section of Section 37-2102 that SB 1015 repealed.

Smelling something fishy, Martinez sounded the alarm to legislators in February last year. Though it passed and was signed by the Governor on March 19, 2021, seven conservative legislators voted nay after her efforts to alert them to the deception. (Voting nay: Christensen, Dixon, Hanks, Kingsley, Okuniewicz, Scott, von Ehlinger). What had Martinez so alarmed? Martinez points to the new rules that reduce public notification of harmful pollutants in our drinking water:

Tier 1: Within 24 Hours

Examples of pollutants include:

Fecal coliform, E.coli, nitrate, and nitrite.

Other contamination events, waterborne emergency, or other violations or situations that can cause harm in a short time, such as days. DEQ can require a Tier 1.

for any contaminant with high enough levels to be of immediate public health concern.

Customers are notified through radio, TV, hand delivery, or other ways to reach all persons served.

Tier 2: Within 30 Days

Examples of pollutants include:

Chemical or radiological contaminants that go over their maximum allowable levels but are not an immediate risk to public health.

Violations for failing to meet specific treatment requirements.

Violations for failing to correct defects found during inspections.

Customers are notified by mail or other direct delivery. Posting the notice in visible locations is allowed for some systems.

Tier 3: Within 1 Year

Most commonly, this is for violations for not taking required samples.

Customers are notified by mail or other direct delivery. Community systems often provide this notice in their annual report to consumers. Posting the notice in visible locations is allowed for some systems.

Researcher Karen Schumacher, also very familiar with water legislation issues, sheds a broader light here. “It is not the Senators who are being nefarious here, it is the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ). IDEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are essentially one in the same, and the EPA and the United Nations are one in the same, making a nice triangular relationship.”

Representatives Heather Scott (Dist. 1) and Ryan Kirby (Dist. 9) in their Facebook video point to how state agencies in writing their rules and regulations are using ‘federal code of reference’ (CFR) language to insert federal code into state code. Senator Christy Zito (Dist. 23) recalls CFR being inserted into SB 1015 last year that was hailed as an attempt to “deregulate and make government smaller.” Sounds nice and efficient, right? CFR is a common drafting practice of making one document become a part of another separate document, thereby declaring, in effect, that Idaho law becomes subject to federal law, like EPA rules, for example. I have to admit, I admire their cleverness.

According to Schumacher, “The bottom line is, IDEQ is misusing Little’s Red Tape Reduction Act. It was never intended to repeal state statutes. SB 1015 must be repealed because it was incorporated without any legitimate statute.”

The Columbia River Treaty (CRT)

Chances are you’ve never heard of this treaty, nor has the average unsuspecting Idahoan. I suspect that is by design. And for those who are familiar, the many rounds of negotiations present an exasperating labyrinth of rules and regulations. Suffice it to say, this treaty is a take-over of Idaho’s water resources — by stealth. As you can see from the map below, the CRT encompasses the whole state of Idaho and all water as part of the Columbia basin. By all appearances, IDEQ and IDWR support them –  as do pro United Nations Agenda 2030 Bureau of Land Management, and NGOs, as you are about to see.

As recently as January 11, 2022, the United States and Canada concluded on the 12^th round of negotiations to modernize the Treaty. According to the US Embassy & Consulates in Canada, “The United States aims to modernize the Treaty to reflect enduring values, especially relating to ecosystem priorities and our commitments to the basin’s people, including to support a healthy and prosperous Columbia River basin. Sounds reasonable enough, until you realize the ‘ecosystem priorities’ of the Treaty takes precedence over our state’s water sovereignty. Protecting ‘ecosystems’ means ecosystem protection to potential harm to every insect, plant, water source, or animal species.  The only solution is to keep away all you evil Idahoans from land and water use.

The Treaty is linked with Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) language. The SDG goals, “Directly links biodiversity and ecosystem services to form the foundation of the Earth’s life support systems and underpin human lives and well-being.” Recent efforts to ‘modernize’ the Treaty puts it in league to meet SDG Goal 15.9: “Integration of biodiversity and ecosystem values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts.” Biodiversity and ecosystems are also integrated in other key goals, including Goal 1 on poverty eradication, Goal 2 on food security and sustainable agriculture, Goal 6 on sustainable water management, Goal 8 on economic growth.

With a very brief overview of how nefarious legislation is used to erode Idaho’s water sovereignty, let’s meet the cast of bad actors working behind the scenes. 

Meet the Players Stealing Our Water Rights

Idaho Department of Water Resources adopted an Idaho State Water Comprehensive Plan in 2012 with UN Agenda 2030 ‘sustainability’ language in it. Sustainability language is code for implementing Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals into state law. At the request of then Governor Butch Otter, IDWR developed a proposed change to the Idaho State Water Plan through the addition of a new Sustainability section

Schumacher warns, “There is also the recent IDWR requirement to register all water rights, that if a water right isn’t registered, the state will take control over it. It’s all part of an effort to inventory all water and put it into a database needed to build the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals for land and water.”

IDEQ (Idaho Department of Environmental Quality) claims, “We are proud to protect human health and the quality of Idaho’s air, land and water.” Sadly, they are differing to IDAPA.

IDAPA (Idaho Department of Administration Procedures Act) oversees rules of procedure passed by the legislature that govern State Agencies, including the Idaho Department of Water Resources. Taking a “We just do whatever the federal government tells them to” approach, IDAPA has been quietly inserting EPA-friendly federal laws into Idaho law.

Here’s one example. Back to SB 1015, which was designed to repeal Section 37-2102 of Idaho Code by declaring it “obsolete.” What the Senators — voting in good faith — may not have known is that IDAPA used their Rule 58.01.08 to justify declaring Idaho Code 37-2102 obsolete.  And so, by replacing “obsolete” Idaho Code with IDAPA rules, legislators, in essence, unwittingly assisted in transferring Idaho’s sovereign water rights into the hands of EPA regulators.

EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is headquartered in Washington, DC. Their mission is “To protect human health and the environment and provide the measures we will use to evaluate our success.” For all intents and purposes, EPA regulations are integrated with UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for water quality. Proof of this lies in the Memorandum of Understanding Between the EPA and the United Nations Environment Program signed in 2021.  ‘Cooperation’ by the EPA, in essence, means EPA is fully on board with implementing Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in every state.

UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals “Provides a shared global blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” Goal 6: Ensures availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Idaho is automatically on the hook for complying with Goal 6. But that’s not all …

WEF (World Economic Forum) website states WEF, “Is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.” Think of WEF as a globalist partner of the United Nations. Agenda 2030 SDGs and the WEF’s Great Reset are virtually on the same trajectory to “Build Back Better” and “Reimagine” the world, including “Reimagining” Idaho.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and non-profits like The Nature Conservancy, are the local foot soldiers of WEF and Agenda 2030. Watch a presentation by Nature Conservancy President Tom Cors on implementing President Joe Biden’s 30×30 Goal to preserve 30% of land and water in EVERY state by 2030 to combat ‘climate change’ here. Read my article for MVLA about how progressive NGOs in Idaho are turning Idaho blue here. And read my article for MVLA on how the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry is using establishment Republicans and some of Idaho’s largest corporations to turn Idaho blue here.

Gov. Brad Little, Partnering with the Globalists

The National Governors Association, of which Gov. Little is a member announced in 2018 a new partnership with WEF. Through WEF Centre, Little receives “expert advice” on the best ways to “prepare for future innovation.” Murat Sönmez, Head of the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network, stated, “The National Governors Association is the first organization of subnational governments to partner with the Centre.”

Little was installed as Chair of the Western Governors Association (WGA) in July 2021. Reporter Karen Schumacher describes how the WGA is the primary mechanism by which WEF and UN Agenda 2030 are implemented locally. “The Western Governors Association previously created its Reimagining the Rural West Initiative (RRW) in order to implement the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).  This initiative is also “connected” to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Great Reset agenda as it also promotes implementation of the SDG.  As the WGA uses the pretext of Covid-19 to justify its actions, so does the WEF “Build Back Better.” Read Little’s efforts on WGA’s pro Agenda 2030 ‘Working Lands, Working Communities’ Initiative.

Little serves with progressive Oregon Governor Kate Brown on WGA’s Western Prosperity Roundtable. The Roundtable convenes “federal, state and local policymakers and stakeholders to discuss emerging issues, share success stories, and provide a forum for the development of bipartisan strategies to improve cross-boundary land and natural resource management, mitigate wildfire risk and restore ecosystems.” There’s that word again.

With Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals, and World Economic Great Reset vision seeping into Idaho state law, comes the required Agenda 2030 infrastructure and technology needed to ensure Idahoans comply to the SDG, such as building “sustainable” water systems, wastewater systems, drinking water regulations, water treatment, etc). No problem. Gov. Little is in league with liberal Governors in using Covid surpluses to ‘fight climate change.’ No wonder Gov. Little has ignored calls from legislators and citizens alike to end his emergency declaration issued in March 2020. Ending the declaration would mean losing the Covid surpluses needed to fund Agenda 2030 and WEF infrastructures in Idaho.

Preserving Idaho’s water rights is everyone’s responsibility

As this article shows, Idahoans can no longer assume that establishment Republicans are looking out for ranchers, dairymen, farmers, or rural and urban landowners. They’re not.  Nor can our most constitutionally minded legislators can shoulder this responsibility alone. They need diligent and engaged citizens like you to help them stop globalists from taking control of Idaho’s water rights.

TAKE ACTION!

Become knowledgeable. Congratulations! In reading this article you took the first step toward preserving Idaho water rights: an informed citizenry holds their elected officials accountable. As you can see, Idaho water issues is complex. But don’t let that intimidate you from taking action. I suggest getting started by reading the Idaho State Constitution section on water rights.

Dive deeper. Now that you have read through this article, I encourage you to go back and click on the hyperlinks to learn more.

Network with others. You are not alone. Chances are you know someone (a rancher, dairyman, farmer, or landowner) who is or has been negatively affected by corruption of Idaho’s water rights. There is strength in numbers. So, share this article with them and others and urge them to do the same. Sign up to become a MVLA Team volunteer here. Then take the next step…

Expose corruption. What is happening without our consent is criminal and a violation of our state’s Constitution. MVLA News is ready, willing and able to name names and tell the truth. We welcome testimonies, articles, or news tips, from individuals or groups that are ready to share their stories, even if you prefer to remain anonymous. Got a news tip? Contact MVLA News at news@mvlibertyalliance.org.

Support constitutionally-minded legislators and legislation. Approximately 600 bills cross the desks of Idaho legislators during Idaho’s 90-day legislative session (now in progress), making it virtually impossible for legislators, acting in good faith, to make fully informed decisions on every bill. Sign up for your legislator’s weekly newsletter, and support their bills that warrant your vote. You can find out who is your legislator and their email here and request their weekly newsletter.

Read and review bills during this legislative session. Rep. Heather Scott (Dist. 1A) is seeking volunteers to commit to reviewing bills to assist legislators with just this very issue, among others. Please email the volunteer coordinator at paterson@reagan.com and copy to hscott@house.idaho.gov.

Visit Growing Freedom for Idaho website, where you can view a listing of ALL the bills being evaluated and analyzed this current legislative session (not just freedom agenda bills).  Please give it a minute to load up.