BOISE - Gary Spackman, director of the state's water resources agency, is promoting draft legislation that could lead to new state rules to protect North Idaho water interests.

"It really can be a mechanism for various basins to use water for groundwater recharge and also protect that resource so it doesn't go out of state," Spackman said Thursday, during a House Agricultural Affairs Committee meeting.

Spackman said that several years ago, there was talk across the state line in Washington about solving the minimum stream and water quality problems in the Spokane River by diverting water out of Lake Pend Oreille to be recharged in the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer before the water enters the river.

"Aquifer recharge" means taking water from one location and placing it in another aquifer to help replenish the underground water supply.

That idea was met with strong opposition by Idaho District 1 state legislators. Spackman said he has now developed the current version of statewide recharge legislation that would include allowing the Idaho Water Resource Board to promote rules, "that could help in protecting the water supplies in northern Idaho from that downstream intrusion and demand on our water."

Spackman noted there's already a comprehensive management plan for the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, and that would remain a prerequisite under the nascent bill's terms for gaining additional protection under possible state rules.

Spackman said his legislation was largely designed to require the Idaho Water Resource Board to "promulgate rules," for aquifer recharge in the eastern Snake River plain aquifer and making that optional for North Idaho.

Spackman described the current draft legislation as a "grand compromise," with an uncertain future.

"You may see this particular legislation come up," he said.