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An aerial view of the Miller’s home at the corner of 55th East and Idaho Highway 26, encompassed by two recharge basin projects | Courtesy Carla Miller
IDAHO FALLS — Ever since they built their dream home in the late 1990s, the Miller household has lived quietly in their corner lot at 55th East and Idaho Highway 26 in Bonneville County. However, with a proposed gravel pit and the ongoing construction of recharge basins surrounding their property, their dream has become a nightmare.
Darla and her husband, Dana Miller, are sharing their recent experiences living next to the current expansion of a recharge basin and the issues they’ve experienced like finding sand in their water tank.
The Millers said they aren’t against the idea of recharging the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer as farmers near them and across the region need it, but they wondered why these recharge sites had to be located so close to their home.
“The goal needs to be replenishing the aquifer, but we can do that in a symbiotic manner so that we’re not hurting residents at the same time,” Dana said.
Since 2023, the state of Idaho has been advocating for the creation of more recharge projects to aid the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer by passing legislation to provide $30 million of funding.
Recharge basins are one option for helping recharge the aquifer, which the state has concerns about due to its declining water level. Basins are shallow pits that hold water diverted from canals to help recharge the aquifer. The Southfork Recharge Basin along ID-26, a 40-acre basin, is expected to recharge 240 acre-feet of water per day into the aquifer.
RELATED | $30 million water infrastructure bill advances in Idaho Legislature
The Millers’ experience
According to the Idaho Water Resource Board Aquifer Stabilization Committee agenda on Sept. 5, 2024, the project that borders the Millers’ south and east are two recharge basins. The current expansion projects aims to place a 9-acre basin to the northeast of the home, adding to the current 5.6-acre basin south of the Miller’s home.
The document states that Enterprize Canal Company bought the 21-acre land next to Millers’ 2-acre lot for the project.
Darla said the 5.6-acre basin was an old gravel pit that had sat empty for years before being renovated to the smaller basin. Once that project started in May 2024, she said, so did the issues.
The sand
Darla and Dana Miller outside their home | Daniel V. Ramirez, EastIdahoNews.com “As soon as they filled it, within a couple of days, we had a ginormous influx of sand. It was in our faucets. It eventually ruined our washer, which we just replaced last week,” Darla said.
She said since they built and moved into their home, they’ve never had an issue with their well until this past year.
According to the Millers’ documentation given to EastIdahoNews.com, a plumber examined the household’s issues in January and reported “a significant influx of sand and sediment into the Millers’ private well water supply.”
“This sediment has infiltrated various components of their plumbing system, including mixing valves, pipes, toilets, faucets, shower heads, nozzles, their washing machine, and the stainless-steel heating tank in the basement,” the plumber wrote.
Sand found inside the Millers’ home: in their washer, left, at the bottom of a toilet and sand in the Millers’ laundry sink. | Courtesy Dana Miller The plumber raised concern over the property’s heating tank because of the sand inside, which could cause issues with the home’s heating. The plumber estimated that if the sand could not be removed, replacing the tank could cost from $30,000 to $40,000.
“It is likely there will be future issues due to the proximity of the Aquifer Recharge Basin on 55th East to the Millers’ property and especially their private well. Additional remedies may be needed,” the plumbing documentation states. “Given that the Millers have already encountered significant issues with the current Aquifer Recharge Basin, it is highly likely that an additional Aquifer Recharge Basin, more than double the size of the first, will cause significant damage to the Millers’ plumbing.”
Aside from an estimate to replace the tank, the plumber also quoted the Millers an estimated cost for flushing the entire system, installing a filter and other items: $7,434.
An estimate a plumber who inspected the Millers’ home gave on more minor repairs | Courtesy Dana Miller Darla said that members of Idaho’s Department of Water Resources and Water Resource Board have reached out to find ways to fix these issues. On Wednesday, Darla said a new sand filter was installed and efforts are being made to address the well of the home for a future date.
EastIdahoNews.com contacted the IDWR about possible concerns about sand being found in nearby wells. Wesley Hipke, ESPA Recharge Program manager for the Idaho Water Resource Board, stated in an email that there haven’t been issues historically.
Hipke said homes at the Jones Recharge Site on 33rd North Road had not reported any issues but those within the area have also reported sand in their wells.
“It would take significant time and testing to determine that the use of the recharge basin is the cause of sand in a well,” Hipke said.
Home’s value plummets
Another problem the Miller household faces is the value of their home and the impact the construction has had.
Darla told EastIdahoNews.com that she and Dana have spoken with a real estate agent who told them to expect a drop in their home’s total price by as much as 40%.
A top-down-view of the Millers’ property line next to the ongoing construction of the recharge basin. | Courtesy Darla Miller The reduction in the home’s value correspond wit the the ongoing construction and the proposed gravel pit.
Darla said if the canal company came to them with an offer of the home’s value before the construction, they’d take it and leave.
“I don’t know if I can stand to live with that,” Darla said.
Health risk
With the proposed gravel pit, Darla has concerns over her health due to the possibility of the dust from that pit around the home.
She told EastIdahoNews.com that a few years ago, she was on a ventilator after getting sick with COVID-19 and nearly dying. Due to this, she is anxious heading into the warmer months, with the high winds potentially blowing more dust, causing issues for her.
Darla said they are working on appealing the proposed gravel pit, and a hearing is scheduled for April 2 at 1:30 p.m. at the Bonneville County Courthouse.
Neighbors on 55th East
The Birrer and Nielsen households, nearly a mile north of the Millers’ home, spoke with EastIdahoNews.com, sharing similar concerns over the a potential sale of land near their properties to Progressive Irrigation District.
The 65-acre land is across from the home of Rob and Kaite Nielsen to the east and encompasses the home of Brannon and Julie Birrer to the south and west.
Google maps view of the Birrer’s property on 55th East adjacent to land they believe maybe purchased to be converted into an aquifer recharge project. | Courtesy Google Maps Both families have spoken with the Millers and want to avoid the same fate.
What spurred the two households was a phone call from the land’s owner advising the Nielsens that the land was being sold and made into a recharge pond, but they were assured the pond would be small.
However, looking at the expansion project next to the Miller’s home going from the 8-acre lot to their south, to Enterprize buying the 21 acres to their northeast expanding it to 29 acres, they have concerns. The neighbors believe the project would be massive pond considering how many days of the year it can effectively recharge.
Over the past months, both households have met with canal company members to discuss the effectiveness of these basins.
Katie told EastIdahoNews.com that the canal company informed them that the basins typically hold water for 45 to 60 days of the year, which is an issue due to the size of the basins near their homes.
Hipke said the amount of water available to recharge the aquifer is often limited, with water from the river only being available 50% of the time. When there is are natural flow of water from the Snake River, the time for that is around 30 days.
Typically, the basin is available to store water for recharge, but that varies from year to year.
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The other concern the neighbors have is the use of the belly dump trucks driving back and forth on 55th East’s two-lane road, which they claim is the reason why North 105th East is closed near Ririe. Progressive Irrigation Company has a recharge project near the town.
Austin Black, the director of the Bonneville County Planning and Zoning Committee, said the closure was due to the impact of moving excavated material off-site.
Black said projects like these have criteria they have to follow or meet, and in this case, a process to establish responsibility to pay for the road damage.
“If they aren’t, or there are things that need to be addressed … then we’ll basically stop work for a time and get those concerns addressed before we let them go again,” Black said.
Addressing the Nielsen and Birrers’ concerns about why the recent projects were chosen, Black said it was based on the area’s hydrology and what had been approved, but the county didn’t have a say in the sites of the current projects.
However, he said from this point forward, “they’re going to require county approval before the state gives funding.”
Moratorium
According to Black, neighbors have been voicing their concerns over these projects over the material being taken away from the excavation of these projects.
“There’s no question for many of us that live in this area that we need water back into the into our aquifer, and that’s why these projects are being proposed. That’s why the state feels so strongly about them, but there is definitely some negative byproducts of those applications,” Black said.
He said while the county has gotten involved, the public needs to understand that it’s a state issue.
According to the agenda for the Bonneville County commissioners on April 1, a public hearing is scheduled for an ordinance that would enact a moratorium on “filing and processing of applications for mining operations associated with water recharge facilities unless the applications were deemed complete by the Bonneville County Zoning Administrator prior to April 1, 2025.”
The proposed moratorium states that neither the state nor the county has a formal permitting process to help protect adjacent landowners, and it calls for the commissioners to make a new ordinance to address these issues.
If passed, the moratorium would last 180 days or could end sooner via a roll call vote during a regular meeting.
It states that the recharge facilities and their mining operations have caused “adverse effects on the public health, safety, and welfare such as public road deterioration, as well as gravel, dust, and noise pollution.”
It further states that these projects have impacted traffic safety and were not mitigated in any way.
The meeting will start at 11 a.m. at the Bonneville County Courthouse.
All three households discussed with EastIdahoNews.com their concerns over the traffic where, in August 2024, a teenager died after colliding with a belly dump truck on U.S. 26 near mile marker 346.5, next to the Southfork Recharge Basin.
RELATED | Teenager involved in crash on US 26 dies at hospital
Paradise lost
Overall, the Millers said they never imagined this was what the future had in store when they built their home over 30 years ago.
Dana said they would’ve preferred a subdivision instead of the basin, but even a subdivision might have been too much.
An image of the backyard of the Millers’ home. Previously, the sunset was visible from the backdoor, left, but now they have a view of a dirt mound, right, with an excavator on top. | Courtesy Dana Miller Darla said when it was just them and the farmers out there, “It’s been beautiful, and the land had been fine.”
“We could see sunsets in the back, or the moon rises, be in our hot tub. Now, you can’t even go out there. It’s too dusty, dirty and grimy. (Now) you look at a 40-to-50-foot-tall dirt hill. We never envisioned this,” Darla said.
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