"The average amount of water each person in Spokane uses increases five-fold in the summer because of soaking and over-soaking lawns. Because water is cheap here, Spokane uses more water per capita than almost any city in the country." - William Stimson in August 27th issue of The Inlander. 

It might seem like an odd time to be talking about watering lawns, but The Inlander's annual water usage report is still lingering in our thoughts, and we wanted to be sure nobody missed it.  In case you did, in their August 27th issue, The Inlander provided a top ten list of which commercial entities are sucking the most water out of the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley Aquifer.  And though the list was as eye-opening and surprising as ever before (978 million gallons) - even if it mostly looked the same (except for you Airway Heights - congrats) it was William Stimson's commentary on water usage and the Spokane River that was most surprising.
"Spokane has been measuring the flow of water under the Monroe Street Bridge for over 100 years, and for over 100 years the level of that flow has been falling," Stimson began his piece with.  As we go into the fall and winter months and river flow becomes but an afterthough, know that things can't continue the way they have and that when the inevitable thaw begins, we must unfreeze our current water usage habits and fight for healthy flow rates in our waterways.  The best time to start conserving water was twenty years ago, the second best time is today.

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