Thanks to Senator Mike Crapo, environmentalists have agreed to discuss the issue with water users rather than immediately taking it to court. I wish them well. I sincerely hope the talks are productive and lead to a better understanding of each side's position.

But some things simply are not subject to negotiation and should not be part of the discussion. Former Governor Cecil Andrus, with whom I served as lieutenant governor for eight years, said recently that his well-meaning friends in the environmental community should focus on workable solutions and drop their demands that the four lower Snake River dams be breached for salmon recovery. He said it just isn't going to happen, and he's right.

The same can be said for the current demand that virtually all the water stored in the Snake River system upstream of Hells Canyon be devoted to flow augmentation. In the spirit of the ongoing negotiations, let me make my own position clear: We must not flush Idaho's future downstream with the salmon. At risk is the economic engine that helps make Idaho one of America's most productive agricultural regions, providing work and recreation for hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and sustenance for even more.

Also at risk is Idaho's quality of life, state sovereignty, the time-honored water law principle of "first in time, first in right," and the degree to which we are willing to subordinate the good of our people to a simplistic and misguided strategy for increasing salmon runs protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The heavy lifting toward a balanced approach to saving salmon and steelhead will continue for years to come, and record returns for some runs this year show that saving the fish is possible without drying up southern Idaho. However, there will be no saving southern Idaho without water.

The lion's share of Idaho's $3.9 billion farm and ranch economy would be nonexistent without the water stored in the Snake River system and recharged into the underground aquifer.

It typically takes three to four acre-feet of water to grow an acre of potatoes. Idaho grows more than 400,000 acres of potatoes. That means farmers need 1.2 million to 1.6 million acre-feet of water just for our potato industry - the equivalent of the entire contents of American Falls Reservoir. That says nothing of the sugar beets, hay, corn, mint, barley and other crops grown on the Snake River Plain. Then there is livestock production, dairies and all the related businesses that depend on those farmers' incomes.

None of that even takes into account the inevitable drop-off in sales of boats, fishing equipment and related gear when reservoirs are turned into mud holes. And speaking of fish, what would happen to the non-anadromous species that inhabit those reservoirs and the wildlife in wetlands and game refuges along the Snake if the system were drained?

Property values? Check with a real estate agent about the difference in value between irrigated and dry acreage in southern Idaho. Then figure out how the drop in property tax revenue will affect rural schools and other public services.

Now calculate what your electric bill would look like if more power had to come from the region's coal- and gas-fired plants. There would be little choice if water behind dams were drawn down for flow augmentation, reducing hydropower generation.

The impact would not be limited to rural Idaho. Cities, and urban residents, also would feel the sting. Another pumping plant already is needed in the Boise area to handle steady growth in demand from commercial, industrial and residential customers in the Treasure Valley.

United Water Idaho put it well: "The economic vitality required to induce investment, create jobs and valley growth is directly tied to a reliable municipal water supply. The economic impact will be enormous if development is curtailed by moratorium or some other means due to municipal water shortfalls."