BOISE - Idaho officials have approved spending $3 million to help pay for a federal study to increase the height of three dams on the Boise River.
The Idaho Water Resources Board on Tuesday approved paying for half of the $6 million study that requires a 50 percent non-federal match.
The Capital Press reports that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation study will look at raising Anderson Ranch Dam by six feet, Arrowrock Dam by ten feet and Lucky Peak Dam by four feet.
That would result in an additional 60,000 acre-feet of storage capacity in the system that can now store about 1 million acre-feet.
A previous feasibility study that looked at raising Arrowrock Dam by as much as 70 feet, increasing storage capacity by more than 300,000 acre-feet, found that such a move would not be cost-effective. It was during an update on that study in May 2016 when the Army Corps of Engineers asked the IDWR board for a new three-year timetable and $3 million for a reformulated study of other options.
Previous story (May 18, 2016): Study: Arrowrock Dam-raising too expensive
