Arrow Point water gets all-clear after tests

It’s safe to swim and pump drinking water from the Arrow Point area after state test results showed no contamination from a weekend sewage spill within feet of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on Monday lifted a swimming ban and advisory to boil drinking water after tests showed water samples were within water quality limits for E. coli and other potential health risks.

“There no longer needs to be any precautions about swimming in the area of Arrow Point,” DEQ engineer John Tindall said.

An unknown amount of sewage leaked Saturday from a broken pipe at a home just south of the Arrow Point condos. The leak, at 5623 Catamaran Lane, was discovered by a neighbor about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Crews were unable to get the system shut off until about 1 a.m. Sunday.

Arrow Point is about three miles south of the city of Coeur d’Alene.

Tindall said it’s unknown how much sewage from the home’s septic tank spilled onto the ground, within about 40 feet of the water.

DEQ advised homeowners and businesses within a quarter mile of the spill, including the Arrow Point Marina and Eddie’s Bar and Grill, not to swim in the lake Sunday until the water was tested. Nearby residents with drinking water intakes from the lake were asked to boil their water.

DEQ also took water samples from the Arrow Point drinking water distribution system to ensure there was no contamination of the groundwater supply.

Crews were repairing the pipe Monday and trying to determine the cause of the break at the unoccupied residence.

The eight homes on Catamaran Lane remained without sewer service Monday, Tindall said.

Andy Holloran, of neighboring Gozzer Ranch, a luxury golf retreat that also owns Eddie’s Bar and Grill, said the development built its wastewater treatment plant large enough to handle the Arrow Point condos and the 30 homes on Catamaran and Freedom lanes.

Not all homeowners on these private roads have hooked up to the treatment system.

Holloran said he’s unsure if the home where the pipe broke is part of the system, which he describes as the first Class A system in Idaho.

That means the effluent is treated to a level where the water is clean enough to use for irrigating the private golf course.

Gozzer Ranch is in the process of transferring the treatment system to North Kootenai Water District.

“This is the exact reason why we wanted to build a plant that had enough capacity to take sewer away from the lake,” Holloran said.

He plans to meet Wednesday with the DEQ, Panhandle Health District and North Kootenai Water District officials to discuss the spill.