Idaho Republicans aren't worried about water sovereignty when its Trump turning the faucet

The mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific

Veteran Northwest Journalist Randy Stapilus is baffled that Idaho’s congressional delegation has not stepped up to defend Idaho’s sovereignty over its water when its threatened directly by Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

I wrote a week ago that Trump had proposed solving California’s water problem by tapping what he called a big” faucet” coming out of Canada. We call it the Columbia River. But since the Snake River that is the lifeblood of Idaho is the largest tributary, it’s just the latest threat to grab our water and send it south.

“And what has been the reaction to that devastating water proposal from Idaho’s public officials?” Stapilus asked rhetorically in a column in the Emmett Messenger. “Crickets.”

He isn’t alone. Marty Trillhaase, writing in the Lewiston Tribune, said water is the “third rail of Idaho politics.”  But Trump didn’t only touch it, he grabbed the hot rail and none of the Idaho Republican leadership said a word.

“If the Biden administration even hinted at this kind of rhetoric, they’d all be at Defcon 1,” Trillhaase wrote.

In fact, Gov. Brad Little spoke Sept. 23 about a report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which is seeking more information about how the states use their groundwater, Stapilus wrote.

“Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke said in response, “Management of water is a state issue. We do not invite or welcome the involvement of the federal government in making decisions about this precious resource.”

And all they wanted to do was get technical data. They were just a committee. Trump could become the next President of the United States.

Idaho has done a pretty good job of preserving its water and its water sovereignty so far. But the rising threat of drought in the southwest from climate change means we will need to be ever vigilant, and bipartisan.