Here's a possible scenario for the summer of 2010. The director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources orders curtailment of a significant number of groundwater pumpers' wells across southern Idaho in order to compensate surface users for depletion of the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer.

Trouble is, he or she doesn't have the manpower to either document what pumpers are using or to enforce a curtailment order.

After Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter ordered a 7.5 percent budget holdback at the agency - part of a state government-wide attempt to square reduced tax collections with the scope and responsibilities of state government - things are getting down to cases at IDWR.

The agency lost 16 jobs in the past month, including its public information officer, and has frozen 11 vacant positions. Only a $500,000 contribution from the Idaho Water Resource Board prevented further cuts to full-time employees at IDWR, Interim Director Gary Spackman said. Counting frozen positions and six layoffs last year, he said his agency has lost at least 15 percent of its work force and will have to shrink or shutter some services.

And it isn't alone.

The Department of Environmental Quality let go 10 people, building on seven layoffs last year and about 25 frozen, vacant positions. At the Department of Lands, layoffs included four full-time employees and two temporary fire-bureau employees. And the Department of Parks and Recreation has now dropped one-fourth of its seasonal staff over the past year.

These agencies, and others, may soon be testing the limits of what's "mission critical."

Spackman has done an admirable job in stretching his resources, but IDWR will always need boots on the ground. That's because monitoring water use requires legwork by professionals trained to know what they're looking for.

And right now, those professionals who are still on the state payroll are in short supply.

While the governor's "three-tiered" budget cuts in September were much preferable to across-the-board reductions used earlier, they were by no means surgical. And some agencies such as IDWR are approaching the limits of what they can do to carry out what the law requires of them.

That's something the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee and the Legislature should pay attention to when it comes time to craft a 2011 budget that will probably require more cuts.

At IDWR, this is a critical time with the beginning of a study of the aquifer that will shape southern Idaho's economic future. The agency needs all the help it can get.

And probably more.