Liberty Lake community facing water rights issues

Liberty Lake, a city located between a lake and a river, is running out of water rights.

If the booming community reaches its permitted water maximum before obtaining additional rights, construction could halt and residents may face water rationing.

Although water rights might seem as antiquated as panning for gold, access to water is a modern-day issue that plagues some growing cities.

“It’s getting more and more valuable everyday, because water is a finite resource, said Keith Stoffel, section manager for Washington Department of Ecology’s water resource program.

Locally, water rights give purveyors, farmers and well owners the government’s OK to extract a given amount of water from the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides water to Spokane and North Idaho residents.

Ten years ago, Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District applied to Washington Department of Ecology to ask for water rights to accommodate a building boom. Funding cuts to the water resource program put new permitting on hold. When state funding was reestablished, DOE had started community watershed planning.

Now Washington and Idaho are involved in a joint aquifer study that’s two to three years from completion. Until then DOE doesn’t plan to issue more rights.

However, Liberty Lake may reach critical mass before the study is finished.

Across the state line, Post Falls, another growing community, has ample water.

Bob Haynes, regional manager for Idaho Department of Water Resources, said since 2000, over half of the new water rights apply to systems that are already operating. Those permits don’t result in any change to aquifer levels, he said.

The fact that Idaho is issuing rights and Washington isn’t concerns local purveyors and environmentalists.

“It’s frustrating. We’re both using the same aquifer,” said Lee Mellish, manager of the district.

Last week, district officials updated three dozen Liberty Lake residents about the potential water shortage.

Part of the problem is the parks, golf courses and lush lawns that lend Liberty Lake its unique beauty, also soak up large quantities of water.

District representatives discussed conservations measures that include working with developers to reduce grass landscaping for new construction and hosting more conservation gardening seminars.

Water auditors will work with large corporate customers to improve irrigation systems.

Using treated water from the sewer plant, which is being updated, to water parks and golf courses would reroute aquifer water to serve additional households.

The district is also purchasing irrigation rights for a 200-acre alfalfa farm. Once obtained, those rights could provide water for more than 1,000 additional homes annually.

Clay Larkin, mayor of Post Falls, said the city has thwarted shortages by being creative in obtaining existing rights.

“What’s helped us now is annexing land. We’re asking that water rights, however small, be transferred.”

Larkin said how quickly Post Falls grows and where it expands will determine future water resource issues.

“When you get down to the nitty-gritty, water rights are extremely crucial to sustaining life.”