Region On Flood Alert Hayden Lake High, Close To Spilling Over

With Hayden Lake less than three feet away from spilling over its dike, workers this morning will try to yank open a welded-shut floodgate and lower the lake level.

“It’s higher than it’s been since records began being kept in the 1920s,” said Gerry House, board chairman of the Hayden Lake Recreational Water and Sewer District.

The water is expected to cover 30 acres of a nearby field once it’s released.

Elsewhere in North Idaho late Tuesday, things weren’t nearly as serious - yet. Despite rain and higher temperatures, rivers were still relatively low. The biggest problem caused by this week’s rapid snow melt was street flooding due to ice-clogged storm drains.

“It’s just awful sloppy,” said St. Maries city mechanic Bob Ingram. “It’s melting off pretty fast.”

Up to an inch of rain is expected today, with highs reaching the upper 40s and the freezing level rising to 8,000 feet, said Kootenai County Emergency Services Coordinator Bill Schwartz.

“That all spells bad news for us, relative to flooding,” he said.

Schwartz said he expects the Coeur d’Alene River at Cataldo - typically one of the first areas to flood - to be near the top of of its banks by the end of the week. The National Weather Service predicts the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene and the St. Joe rivers will crest a few feet below flood stage Friday.

In Hayden, the sewer district is bringing in equipment at 8 a.m. today to pull open the spillway.

Most lakes have an outlet creek. Hayden Lake doesn’t. The only outflow is down through the lakebed, which drains into the Rathdrum aquifer.

The lake’s feeder creeks are pouring water in faster than it can drain out, raising the lake level.

The dike contains a sewer line and a Washington Water Power natural gas line, House said. The dike’s spillway is surrounded by concrete and stone rip-rap, House said, which will prevent water gushing out from eating into the dike.

Just in case, though, the district will have workers stationed at sewer valves on each end of the dike to quickly clamp the line shut if anything goes wrong.

“I can’t imagine sewage going into that lake,” he said.

He asked that people stay away from the site, for their safety and to avoid clogging the roads.

The dike was built in 1911, House said. When the lake rose in 1956, nearby homeowners dynamited a hole in the dike to prevent it from blowing out. The ensuing burst of water washed away more than 50 feet of the dike.

The spillway was welded shut years ago because of vandalism, House said.

If things go wrong and the sewer line must be shut down, House said, it won’t shut down the area’s sewer system. The district could still truck sewage and set up temporary pipelines, he said.

Schwartz said he and other officials will be on hand for the work, which is being paid for by the sewer district.

“If everything goes OK, we’ll be fine,” he said. “If not, we’ll all know about it.”

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