ABERDEEN - SPRINGFIELD CANAL COMPANY HOMEPAGE
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ARCHIVES

NEWS:
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September 13, 2005

Re: Water Shutout Date

Dear Shareholders and Water users,

Once again we're approaching the end of another water season. We were very fortunate again this year with a cool spring and early rains. With the onset of fall temperatures, I suspect that most of you will be done irrigating within the next two to three weeks.

At the beginning of the storage season (July 13, 2005) this year, I told the Board of Directors that not only were we in pretty good shape with respect to the water supply, I believed we could end up with as much as 35,000 acre-feet of carryover if we shut off in mid-October. I'd like to remind you that in each of the drought years that we had to acquire water to have a season (even the short seasons that we had), we needed 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet. I believe that at least 35,000 acre-feet of carryover should be retained as 'insurance' against the potential for a continued drought.

As of September 12, 2005, we had 71,624 acre-feet of storage water remaining. Our water use model predicts that we will need to shut out the canal on October 8, 2005 in order to have 34,000 acre-feet of carryover. If we continue running water in the canal until October 15th we can expect to use an additional 9,000 to 10,000 acre-feet more, leaving us with about 25,000 acre-feet of carryover. Consequently, my target date for turning the water out of the canal is October 8, 2005. Of course if the weather changes or if more time is needed for harvest, we may extend this date.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me.

Thank you,

Steven T. Howser,
General Manager

July 22, 2005

On July 13th we started full storage. Thanks to a wet spring allocations are appromimately 30% greater than last year. Our water use model predicts that if we are conservative, we will end this season with more carryover than we've seen since 1999. We will be able to deliver water throughtout the entire season without shutting down to save water for harvest.

The timing of our beginning storage draw and the grain going off worked out very well. This week we've been cutting our diversion by about 1,000 inches per day, and i expect that we'll be down to a 950 cfs diversion by about the week of the 25th. I still plan on managing the water in the same manner as last year in order to conserve as much of our storage as possible. Each ride will be allocated a set amount of water and it will again be necessary for you to work with your ditchrider so that he can distribute the water he is allocated in an efficient manner.

If you have any questions about your water balance please call the office and talk to Laurie or Amy.

Thank You

Steven T Howser, General Manager

Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Company announces water turn-in date.

April 18,2005

Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Company will be bringing water into its system on April 20, 2005.According to General Manager Steve Howser, the original scheduled date to bring the water in wasApril 15, 2005. Howser explained that, "We've had a couple of delays in our preparations for the water
season, but we should be ready on Wednesday, April 20th."

Prospects for this season's water supply are well below normal. Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Company storage supplies are predicted to be less than 50%. "Things are going to be tight, certainly tighter than last year but not as bad as we've seen." Howser said. "Our storage supply is predicted to be about the
same as last year, but we'll likely see less natural flow; so we will continue the management practices that we implemented last year. If we're lucky, we'll make it through the season with a two-week shutdown sometime in August then come back in for harvest." That scenario would be very close to
what the Company experienced in 2002.

"We've learned a lot about conserving water from the system standpoint in the last 5 years, and there's not much left we can do to conserve more. Our best chance is to repeat the system and on-farm conservation that we achieved last year, as well as the outstanding cooperation of all of our water users to work with the Company to manage our water as conservatively as possible."

Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Company delivers water to more than 58,000 acres in Bingham and Power Counties from north of Blackfoot to west of American Falls. It operates and maintains 190 miles of main and lateral canals with over 500 turn-outs. The Company has been in full operation since 1910. It has a
Snake River natural-flow water right of February 6, 1895 and owns storage in American Falls reservoir, Palisades reservoir, and Jackson reservoir. It was the first Carey Act project in the state of Idaho.

March 8, 2005

Dear Shareholders and Waterusers:

At their regular meeting on March 8, 2005 the Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Company Board of Directors have tentatively set the date for water turn-in for the 2005 irrigation season at April 15th, depending on weather conditions. The Board will meet again on April 5th and will firm up the date for turn-in at that time. It is still pretty early to be able to make any solid predictions about this year's water supply. However, I know that many of you have planting decisions that need to be made by the middle of March.
Based on the March 1, 2005 US Bureau of Reclamation forecasts for the Upper Snake River Basin, I have developed estimates for this year's water supply. As you probably suspect, we are facing another seriously short water supply. Using the "most likely" forecast from the Bureau, I estimate that we will be 30-35% short of a full water supply, and it is very unlikely that there will be any water available from the Water District #1 Rental Pool. Even if there is water available, the cost will be $18.00 per acre-foot. That translates to a cost of $36,000 (about $0.60 per share) for one day's supply of water. We didn't budget any money for renting water this year, and any additional cost we would incur from renting water would have to be made up in next year's assessments (again, if there were any water available). Last year, we got about 8,000 acre-feet (4-5 days worth) from the rental pool for a cost of about $80,000. That same amount of water this year would cost us $145,000. If we have 'normal' precipitation and we can keep our natural flow until the end of June, we will need to consider a mid-season shut-off to save water for harvest. It is important to keep in mind that for 3 of the last 4 years, our natural flow has run out well before the end of June. With normal precipitation from now until June, we're looking at having a year very similar to 2003. You may remember that in that year we shut down the canal for 20 days in August.
We will continue the management practices that we instituted last year, and that should help us to minimize any shut down time this year. I was very pleased with how well things worked last year. We will continue to require 72 hours notice for on and off orders and we will manage the water as tightly as we can. This means that every day each ditchrider will be allocated a set amount of water that they may distribute amongst the headgates on their ride. It will be their responsibility to work with each of their waterusers to schedule deliveries to maximize the use of their daily allotment, starting from day one. All of you did an outstanding job working with your ditchriders last year, and I encourage you all to continue that high level of cooperation and coordination.
Last year we used PAM in our canals to help decrease some of our loss, and I was pleased with the results. I estimate that we saved as much as 10,000 acre-feet of water, that's 5-7 days worth. This year we will continue applying PAM to our canals and the Board and I strongly suggest that you all consider its use in your private ditches and ponds. The Bureau of Reclamation research on this stuff suggests that in a ¼ mile-long ditch moving between 100 and 500 inches of water application of PAM resulted in an increase of flows by as much as 70%. Further, application of PAM to holding ponds can virtually stop loss through the bottom. The Board has authorized me to purchase additional supplies of PAM for sale to our water users. In addition, we will work with you to insure that it is applied properly and to maximum benefit. The recommended application rate is 7 pounds per acre of wetted surface. That means for most applications only a few pounds will be necessary. Cost is around $7.00 per pound and application is pretty easy.
As always, if you have questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

For the Board of Directors,

Steven T. Howser,
General Manager

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NEWS RELEASE
COALITION FOR IDAHO WATER, INC.
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(See "60 Day Notice Reax)

Boise, Idaho - August 27, 2003 - A broad coalition of Idaho water users are warning state residents that an Idaho water crisis which could potentially dwarf the Oregon Klamath Basin water calamity is looming on the horizon following new demands for Idaho water by environmental groups.

Coalition officials say the threat by the groups to sue the Federal government to use all the water from its storage reservoirs for salmon recovery flow augmentation is a blatant attempt to extort the state to support removal of the four dams on the lower Snake River in exchange for keeping its own water.

Groups including Idaho Rivers United and the Idaho Conservation League notified the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Reclamation and the NOAA Fisheries that unless their demands are met, they will sue these agencies within 60 days claiming they are violating the Endangered Species Act. These demands include threats to force the Bureau of Reclamation to shut down its water deliveries from Idaho reservoirs to irrigators in 2004 and send the water downstream for flow augmentation.

In 2001, irrigation water deliveries were stopped to some 200,000 acres of farmland in the Klamath River Basin of Oregon. The result was devastating with hundreds of millions of dollars lost to the economic base of the area.
Water economic impact studies already done by Federal authorities estimate that a Klamath style shut off in Idaho could dry up well over a million acres with an economic impact running into the billions of dollars.

"If this eco-extortion strategy is successful, Idaho will have Klamath times ten on our hands," said Norm Semanko, of the Idaho Water Users Association and president of the Coalition.

Another demand is that NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Reclamation abandon the biological opinion that currently outlines reservoir operations and begin a public review of all BoR storage reservoirs in the Upper Snake River Basin.

-more-

Coalition For Idaho Water - Page 2 of 2

"At a time when Idaho is struggling to cope with terrible economic trials, suffering through three years of unrelenting drought, when our Eastern Snake River reservoir system has been drained and is now facing its lowest carryover total on record, that is when Idaho Rivers United and the Idaho Conservation League have decided to declare war on the citizens of Idaho," Semanko said.

Coalition officials point to scientific data that has conclusively established that flow augmentation does not provide a meaningful benefit in salmon recovery efforts.

"Flow augmentation is a failed experiment that has been wholly discredited in the scientific community in recent years and these environmental activist groups know that. Still, they make it clear that unless Idaho officially supports breaching of downstream dams, they will sue to force the Federal government to empty Idaho reservoirs of what water there is and send it all downstream as flow augmentation," Semanko added.

The disastrous economic ripple of the BoR is forced to drain its reservoirs for the failed flow augmentation program would roll through Idaho's entire economy like an economic tidal wave.

Besides Idaho's $5 billion agricultural sector, losing reservoir storage water would severely impact critical municipal supplies, recreational and tourist activities on rivers and reservoirs, existing fisheries and wildlife habitat, groundwater levels, even water quality, the Coalition said.

-cont-

(60 Day Notice Reax)

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CALENDER OF UPCOMING EVENTS

APRIL 1st
Second half of 2005 assessment is due

APRIL 2nd
Interest will start being charged for all unpaid 2005 Assessments

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