RESERVOIRS — Avista Utilities will start to draw down the water level at Lake Spokane (Long Lake Reservoir) on Friday (Dec. 23).Operators expect to lower the reservoir up to a foot a day for two or three weeks until it reaches its winter elevation of 13 to 14 feet below maximum summer elevation of 1,536 feet.

Under the right weather conditions, which include sustained periods of single-digit temperatures and little or no snow on the exposed lakebed, the drawdown is expected to help control Eurasian watermilfoil and other invasive aquatic weeds found in Lake Spokane. The drawdown also allows shoreline homeowners the opportunity to complete state and locally permitted repair and construction projects along the lake shoreline.

Property owners and lake-users can should remove boats from the water and securing docks and boathouses to accommodate shifting ice and low-water conditions.

The lower winter elevation will be maintained as long as river flows allow. However, during the drawdown period water levels are subject to change due to a variety of factors, such as weather (rain on snow events in the upper drainages) or maintenance at the Long Lake Dam.

For updates, see Avista's website or check the 24-hour telephone info for Lake Spokane, the Spokane River and Coeur d’ Alene Lake. In Washington call (509) 495-8043; in Idaho call (208) 769-1357.

re: Editorial: Kootenai County residents face double, triple sewer rates/Coeur d'Alene Press

KEA Blog response: The paper is evidently calling for some sort of misguided citizen uprising against yet-to-be-determined sewage rate increases caused by yet-to-be-permitted sewage treatment upgrades. Wildly missing the mark though, the CDA Press does the region no favors. In fact, some 13 years into an impossibly complicated process, the polluted Spokane River and particularly he green-slimed and oxygen-starved Long Lake finally have a reasonable cleanup plan that requires significant pollution reductions to all the dischargers on the River, including Idaho’s. Despite the editorial’s unfounded and hyperbolic claims, Idaho municipalities discharging onto the River are already committed and are hard at work designing and testing improved sewage treatment technologies. Full response here. (Jesse Tinsley SR file photo: Tubers on Spokane River)

Question: How import to you is the water quality in the Spokane River?

BOATING —  The Lake Spokane (Long Lake) Campground boat launch is temporarily open this weekend through Sunday, 6 a.m.-8 p.m., Department of Natural Resources officials announced this afternoon.

The facility is 18 miles northeast of Reardan off U.S. Highway 291.

But for some reason the DNR, in announcing the opening, said the Riverside State Park launches are closed.  Not so, said Brian Frahm, park ranger.

Here's what Frahm said in an email to the S-R: