Below are statistics received from Idaho Irrigation District’s and New Sweden Irrigation District’s agent processing the districts’ applications through federal, state and county agencies.
Patrons are members of irrigation districts that hold irrigation water rights for their respect lands. There are 2,652 patrons combined in Idaho Irrigation and New Sweden Irrigation districts. Only 90 of 2,652 patrons voted with 78 voting yes and 12 voting no.
Irrigation districts are saying that they received near 90% patron approval (78 approval votes out of 90 total votes cast = 87%). In reality, less than 3% of patrons approved the project (78 of 2,652 = 2.9%). We understand that some of these 78 would have voted no if they had been fully informed on CLHP impacts. These 78 have 15% of the total lands irrigated indicating a very small number of relatively large land owners are promoting the CLHP.
We understand that some New Sweden patrons have requested a new vote regarding whether to proceed with the CLHP, but this request has been denied.
| New Sweden | Idaho Irrigation | Total | % of Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total area irrigated by district water (acres) | 27,429 | 35,995 | 63,424 | |
| Patrons in irrigation districts | 1,100 | 1,552 | 2,652 | |
| Patrons that voted in the election to approve or disapprove the pursuit of hydropower project implementation | 59 | 31 | ||
| Patrons that voted in favor of hydropower project implementation | 51 | 27 | 78 | 2.9 |
| Patrons that voted against hydropower project implementation. | 8 | 4 | 12 | |
| Total irrigated land area represented by patrons voting for hydropower project implementation (acres) | 7,011 | 2,511 | 9,521 | 15.0 |
| Total irrigated land area represented by patrons voting against hydropower project implementation | 181 | 29 |