Idaho
Grateful Magic Valley growers and irrigation entities praise ISDA's quagga response
TWIN FALLS COUNTY, Idaho — After the announcement of quagga mussels detected in the Snake River last year and again this September, a coalition of major agricultural commodity organizations voiced their support for the Idaho State Department of Ag’s aggressive treatment plan. The risk to agriculture warrants swift action, they say.
- Quagga mussels were first detected in the Snake River near Twin Falls in September 2023. Within a week ISDA had put in place a plan to treat the river to eradicate the mussels.
- Constant sampling of water bodies in the state has led to the detection, this year, of more larval veligers of the mussel, indicating the presence of adults.
- Given the acute threat a widespread infestation of quagga mussels could have on agriculture in the region, ISDA is responding with an aggressive plan to once again treat the Snake River early this October.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Overnight temperatures are dropping, and for most farmers the harvest has been in high gear for weeks.
“The next month will be really extreme. It’ll take us about a month to dig all our sugar beets,” said farmer Larry Hollifield.
For Hollifield, the next few weeks are the final push for the season.
“Yeah, this is the heart of it right here, when you start making your money and deliver and everything to get what you need,” Hollifield said. “So hopefully the bills pay themselves.”
After the announcement of quagga mussels detected in the Snake River last year and again this September, a coalition of major agricultural commodity organizations voiced their support for the Idaho State Department of Ag’s aggressive treatment plan.
“Last year it was real panic when they announced that,” Hollifield said. “That is, gosh, something you’re just scared of. It’s been on the radar for a long time and you’re just hoping it would never show up.”
“This structure is critically important,” said Jason Brown of the Twin Falls Canal Company, as he showed me around Milner Dam.
When the Milner Dam was completed in 1904 it kicked off a transformation of South-Central Idaho, allowing the desert to be irrigated.
“Milner Dam diverts water to three irrigation organizations that irrigate over 500,000 acres, and that’s substantial,” Brown said.
Brown said the canal company has had a lot of conversations with industry peers in other states where quagga mussels have taken hold.
“They’re clogging pipes are clogging pipes, and I’ve heard stories that instead of trying to get them out of the pipes they just pull the pipe out and put a new pipe in,” Brown said.
As soon as quagga gets a foothold, it’s no longer about getting rid of them, it’s about trying to keep water flowing in spite of them.
“If they were to take root in these types of structures, it would cost thousands to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars for maintenance and repair,” Brown said. “How that would impact the economy would be significant.”
“Nothing would grow in this valley without water. We’re in the middle of the desert — the heat and everything was just annihilate everything if we didn’t have irrigation. So that’s required to grow any crop we do,” Hollifield said.
PAYETTE — A Payette mom’s bond was revoked Tuesday after she was charged with suffocating her twin children earlier this month and is believed to pose a danger to the life of her newborn child.
The case, which has drawn national headlines, concerns Andrea Renee Shaw, a 23-year-old Payette mother who in May 2025 said her 18-month-old fraternal twins died the same day, after receiving routine childhood vaccinations. In January, Shaw joined as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with several other plaintiffs claiming vaccine injury or death.
Kennedy, who now serves as secretary of Health and Human Services, is no longer part of the group after taking on the cabinet position, as was reported by the Associated Press.
In Idaho, the twins’ deaths prompted a 14-month investigation by the Payette County Sheriff’s Department. On June 29, the investigation yielded a grand jury indictment of Shaw on two counts of first-degree murder by suffocation. If convicted, Shaw can be punished by up to life in prison or the death penalty, and the court would have the ability to order the penalties be served consecutively, or back to back.
Tuesday’s arraignment at the Payette County Courthouse was primarily attended by Shaw’s relatives and members of the media. Payette County Judge Kiley Stuchlik, who serves Idaho’s Third Judicial District, presided.
A key consideration for Stuchlik on Tuesday was a request from Joseph Filicetti, the legal counsel for Shaw, to have her bond reduced from $2 million to $100,000. Filicetti said this would allow for Shaw to care for a newborn girl, who, according to court documents, was born by caesarean section on June 25, four days prior to Shaw’s grand jury indictment.
State prosecutors objected to the motion for bond reduction, noting at hand was a potential death penalty case and asserting, unlike her husband, Shaw’s story repeatedly changed during questioning. Prosecuting Attorney Mike Duke said releasing Shaw would ultimately put the newborn’s safety at risk.
“That child is the most at risk. We do not think she should be allowed to be anywhere near any children, let alone her own children,” Duke said.
Stuchlik decided to revoke bond entirely, stating Shaw posed a “risk of safety” to the newborn child that was not known to Stuchlik or prosecutors when the $2 million bond was initially set.
Also for consideration Tuesday was a request to have grand jury transcripts of witness testimony provided to prosecutors and defense counsel to prepare their respective cases.
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