Teton Valley Water & Canals Information
It can be challenging to find information about water in Teton Valley, Idaho. As a service to our partners and to the community, this page hosts some resources to identify canal companies, find locations of canals, view live priority dates, and contact local water masters.
Canals & Canal Companies
To find the canal company for your area, use the Search function on the map with your address, or select the location on the map.
Priority Dates Information - LIVE
As a service and convenience for irrigators and residents, live priority dates are housed below. The priority date is the date when the water right was established and it determines who gets water when there is a shortage. If there is not enough water available to satisfy all of the water rights, then the oldest (or senior) water rights are satisfied first and so on (in order) until there is no water left. When there is not enough water to satisfy all the water rights, new (or junior) water rights holders do not get water.
Projected priorities listed below indicate which water right holders are expected to have water access for the dates listed. These are updated through the growing season and the live updates can be viewed on this page, or found here.
Idaho Water & Canals Information
For finding more information on water rights, water jurisdiction boundaries, water administrators, priority dates or to contact your water district, contact the Idaho Department of Water Resources or visit the links below.
Idaho Water Rights Background Information
Water rights were first written into law in Idaho’s State Constitution in 1890. All waters are public property of the state. Water rights are usufructory, meaning that rights holders don’t own the physical water but own “the right to divert the public waters of the state of Idaho and put them to beneficial use.”
Water rights were originally designed to protect farmers who invested in irrigation canals and equipment so that upstream farmers couldn’t divert all the water for their own use. Under this system, water rights are based on prior appropriation, or “first in time, first in right.” The farms that were established earliest – areas west and south of Teton Valley – have senior rights to the water, leaving the local farmers with junior rights.
The legal system governing water rights is complex and has evolved over time to balance the needs and priorities among many users, including a growing population and a better understanding of water in the environment. Today, water is managed in such a way that recognizes the connection between ground and surface water and unused water rights can be rented to other users.
For more detail on the history of Idaho’s water rights, see Teton Magazine’s Systems in Flow.