Post Falls slakes thirst, for now

Post Falls is no longer asking the state for permission to pull an additional 13 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer.

The city withdrew its application for the new water rights last month because it found ways to use existing water rights to service its growing population, said Public Works Superintendent Terry Werner.

“We have enough water rights to cover us through 2006,” Werner said.

But he said the city eventually may have to ask the Idaho Department of Water Resources for extra water. Coeur d’Alene also may have to request more water rights but, like Post Falls and Rathdrum, the city is now requiring property owners to include water rights with any newly annexed property.

The attorney representing the conservation groups that protested Post Fall’s request for more water is pleased with the outcome.

“Post Falls has done the right thing and is showing some leadership by recognizing it’s better not to add more pumping if we can make do with what we’ve got,” said Rachael Paschel Osborn, who represents Friends of the Aquifer and The Sierra Club.

The two conservation groups, along with the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, filed formal protests with the state in August 2002 arguing the city’s water request was unwarranted and could harm the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

KEA dropped its protest in July 2003 after Post Falls said it would scale back its request by 8 million gallons a day. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Aquifer continued their opposition because they said that 5 million gallons of water a day was still too much.

Just as both sides were preparing for a hearing in January, Post Falls asked for a six-month postponement and then found other ways to get the water.

Werner said the city got the needed water by transferring existing water rights on former agricultural land that was recently included in the city limits.

Post Falls and Rathdrum now require property owners to transfer their water rights to the city if they want to annex the land, realizing this new water supply can reduce the need to ask the state for more water rights.

This month the Coeur d’Alene City Council approved a similar policy requiring land owners to transfer water rights to the city when the property is brought into the city limits.

“Residential development uses more water than most agriculture uses so this doesn’t solve the need for new water rights, but it helps,” said Coeur d’Alene Water Superintendent Jim Markley.

Markley said Coeur d’Alene has adequate water for now but the city will eventually have to request more water rights.

Getting new water rights has become more difficult – or at least contentious – as conservation groups disagree with Idaho’s policy of continuing to issue water rights even though there are questions about how much water is left in the aquifer.

The groups want the state to put a moratorium on new water requests until a $3.5 million bi-state study is completed to determine how much water remains in the aquifer, which is the sole source of drinking water for more than 400,000 people. The aquifer straddles the Idaho-Washington border. Washington hasn’t issued water permits in Spokane County since 1992, as the states waits for the results of the watershed study.

Osborn said the groups will continue to protest any new applications for water rights.

The aquifer debate was launched when Cogentrix Energy and Newport Generation Inc. asked the state for a total of 17 million gallons of water per day for two giant power plant proposals. After two fiery hearings, the state denied the requests. Soon after, Post Falls applied for the additional 13 million gallons per day.

Because new water rights are getting more and more difficult to obtain, Werner said, Post Falls started looking for other ways to get water.

“I think that’s the direction everyone is going,” said Bob Haynes, the Department of Water Resources’ regional supervisor.

He added that Idaho law values older water rights, which often come with agricultural property, more than new water rights. The state’s “first in time, first in right” water law says older water rights trump new ones.

This has become a large problem in Southern Idaho, where drought is inching into its seventh year and there’s not enough water to go around.

Senior water users are beginning to demand their water at the expense of junior rights holders.

It’s an issue that’s expected to become a main focus of the 2005 Idaho Legislature, with lawmakers potentially drafting a huge, costly bailout for drought-stricken Southern Idaho water-rights holders.

Osborn said the limited amount of water in the region is why the conservation groups are against the issuance of new water rights. And they want to see cities to adopt strict water conservation plans.

Markley said Coeur d’Alene is currently working on creating a conservation program. And Post Falls has taken some steps toward conservation with reducing the amount of water people can use to water their lawns and gardens in the summer months.

Osborn said the cities need to do more because the Spokane River is in a crisis state with decreasing water flows.

She said less water is in the river because more of it is being pumped from the aquifer. Low water levels harm aquatic life and reduce the amount of treated wastewater effluent local towns can dump into the river. That means the cities have to find alternatives, which are expensive.

“We have to look closely if people are using less water,” Osborn said. “We haven’t seen it yet. And we have a crisis with our river.”