Work on the American Falls Dam was underway in 1926 but the winter had been a dry one, with March snowpack above Jackson Lake measured at 53 inches. The winter watershed collection began with low October precipitation, and after an average November the snowfall again fell below normal in December. January, too, proved to be a month of little precipitation, and though February's snows were at average levels March's were the lowest on record. April followed with record low precipitation levels, too, while temperatures also hurt the snowpack, being the warmest ever recorded. May's low water totals ushered in similar statistics for June, which was warmer and drier than normal. By the time summer neared its end in August, ten months in a row of above normal temperatures had been recorded.
Irrigators expected early cutoffs of water delivery, with lower river groups working to make sure their water was secure. They initially protested the practice of water transfers but agreed to them if they were assessed seventeen and a half percent loss, thereby increasing downstream flow.
They also questioned water diversions on streams in the Springfield-Sterling area, insisting that gages be installed to measure use. Colborn Creek, Alkali Spring, and Artesian Spring, in particular, didn't exist as much more than trickles before the Aberdeen-Springfield canal's construction, so lower river users considered those waters part of the river's natural flow. A judge issued a restraining order in early June that prevented the watermaster from controlling those streams, however, the question whether he had authority in dry years to divert the waters unanswered.
The dry winter segued into a dry spring, and water diversions were postpones until June when the river below Blackfoot was nearly dry. Impounding stopped at Jackson Lake and water cuts administered to canals to all but the oldest rights. The typical damming of the Snake below Blackfoot didn't take place due to upper valley water sales to lower canals which increased flow, preventing work. 156,000 acre feet ended up being exchanged throughout the difficult year, upper canals generally trading natural flow they didn't need for Jackson storage they could use later. Early water went for $2 per acre-foot but later water sold at seventy-five cents, some canals finding they didn't need as much as they purchased.
The American Falls Reservoir increased the difficulty of the watermaster's task, no data being in place yet to tell him how long water would take to reach lower river users, no information on how much lake water evaporated or percolated into the ground being available. The hydrologists had discovered, however, that the percentage of water loss increased as river flow decreased.
At least twenty-three streams fed the Snake between the Clough ranch (Tilden Bridge, now) and Neeley, their input--with the Portneuf River--increasing the flow about 2500 second-feet. On the north side of the river, McTucker Springs, Boone Creek, Hull Springs, Crystal Springs and Danilson Spring water users had rights dating to 1902, which made ripe pickings for lower river users in the Twin Falls area with earlier rights. They demanded the watermaster exert oversight, previously absent, over these waters.
That summer, the deputy watermaster in charge of that area received numerous threats from the more than forty waterusers diverting from those streams. Below shows an excerpt from the watermaster's report at those areas:
It wasn't the only place along the Snake where watermasters encountered problems, though, as downstream Granite Creek (near Conant Valley) users, mostly dry farmers needing stream water for domestic use, accused upstreamers of contaminating the supply and rendering it unfit. The watermaster faced numerous disputes, called "tempest in a teapot" scenarios in the annual report, and defused them.
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