Julie Titone

1. Surveying the snowpack Scott Pattee weighs a snow sample from Mount Spokane. Pattee's measurements of the snowpack will indicate river flows later in the year. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. (In Spokane edition only.) Surveying the snowpack Scott Pattee weighs a snow sample from Mount Spokane. Pattee's measurements of the snowpack will indicate river flows later in the year. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

One-fifth of Panhandle residents get their drinking water from lakes and streams, where it's exposed to bacteria that could make them sick. And thousands of those people live in communities with outdated water systems for removing those germs. Among them are the St. Maries system, which serves 2,800 people; and the Central Shoshone County Water District, with 4,000 customers in Kellogg, Osburn, Wardner and Smelterville.

Retired telephone engineer Bill Newman holds a test tube used to check the amount of sediment in water. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Benewah County should be able to fix problems related to enforcement of its floodplain ordinance and stay in the National Flood insurance program, a federal disaster official said Thursday. "I'm convinced we can work this out," said Chuck Steele of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We rarely ever suspend anyone." County commissioners face a bigger problem than the probation, Steele said. They must decide what to do about the homes and businesses that were destroyed in the February floods.

Idaho counties and Indian reservations face an estimated $12.6 million in flood damage to roads, bridges and other public property. Latah County got hit the hardest, according to the Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services.

1. At the Potlatch mill, workmen corral lumber floating in the receding floodwaters. Several pumps were emptying the Riverdale dike districts. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Buell

What began as a way to revive vacant, big-city industrial sites could end up helping mom-and-pop businesses in Idaho. The Idaho Land Remediation Act being considered by lawmakers would encourage property owners to voluntarily clean up pollution. They'd pay for the work and for state oversight. In return, the landowners - and their bankers - would get written assurance that they had met their responsibility. They'd get a tax break. And they couldn't be sued.

Saying he wants to reaffirm his commitment to restore Idaho's salmon and steelhead runs, Gov. Phil Batt has released a state policy to help fish migration in the Snake River this spring. The policy will be presented to the National Marine Fisheries Service as a proposal for Columbia and Snake river operations during the upcoming salmon migration season, which runs April through mid-June. It calls for the release of water from Dworshak Reservoir near Orofino, without draining the popular recreation site during the summer months.

As St. Maries area residents move back into their flood-stricken homes, they may not be able to use their toilets. "The lift stations in the Riverdale area in Benewah County are not functioning and probably won't be for some time, said John Tindall of the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. The stations pump sewage to a treatment plant. Tindall urged Riverdale residents to phone Phil Brown at 245-2577 to find out if the system is functioning at their homes.

The walls come tumbling down Thursday on the last building that was part of the lead smelter at Bunker Hill in Kellogg. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

The state Division of Environmental Quality is offering free water testing for people with private wells who are concerned about heavy metals contamination caused by recent floods. "It's a legitimate concern," said Steve Tanner of DEQ. "We would advise people to have the water tested, especially if there was sediment in their water supply." So far, the only requests for the tests have come from people who take water from Lake Coeur d'Alene or the Spokane River, Tanner said.

Toxic flook A hazardous waste specialist gathers materials washed up by recent flooding along the St. Joe River. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Retiree Verne Blalack, Cataldo 2. Cataldo residents unload concrete barriers Monday under the Interstate 90 overpass as the Coeur d'Alene River threatens to flood again. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Vernon and Verna Larson knew their home had been elevated above the flood plain as Shoshone County ordinance requires. So they didn't bother to take cherished photos or important papers when they left their home on Feb. 10, as floodwaters threatened to inundate Coeur d'Alene River Road.

About half as much water pulsed through the Coeur d'Alene River last week as during the benchmark flood of 1974. That will come as a surprise to many Kingston and Cataldo residents who had 4 feet of water in their homes. They swore the flooding was as bad or worse than 22 years ago.

FOR THE RECORD: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 Mark Bondeson, who drowned last November in Priest Lake, was 35. His age was wrong in a Monday article.

Idaho's governor is turning to a different federal law to avoid Endangered Species Act protection for the bull trout. The Clean Water Act is a linchpin of Gov. Phil Batt's conservation plan for the fish.

The chance to catch salmon or steelhead in the Northwest may drop soon from bad to abysmal. Congressional budget cuts are about to close six hatcheries in Washington and Oregon.

The chance to catch salmon or steelhead in the Northwest may drop soon from bad to abysmal. Congressional budget cuts are about to close six hatcheries in Washington and Oregon. Thirty-nine million tiny fish, raised at taxpayer expense, will be released prematurely. Many will die.

Bill Frymire, Evelyn Huender and other members of the Panhandle Nordic Club maintain the Fourth of July Pass cross-county trails and the warming hut. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

The skiing's hot. The ice fishing's not. The ice on many Inland Northwest lakes is too thin to be safe. "It's really, really dangerous now," said Ned Horner, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Fish and Game Department in Coeur d'Alene. "I'm not going out, and I'm a hard-core ice fisherman."

Idaho Public Television will close its Coeur d'Alene office as part of statewide cutbacks. Last week, IPTV managers learned their network would get $700,000 less in federal funding over the next four years. It also lost more than $100,000 in state funding this year, general manager Jerold Garber said.

Plans to install hydropower turbines at a Canadian dam were put on hold Tuesday, just as people downstream in Washington were asking whether the project might harm sport fishing in Lake Roosevelt. The upgrade of the Keenleyside Dam is far from canceled, however. Its supporters in British Columbia continue to seek environmental permits for the project, which could affect one of the last free-flowing stretches of the Columbia River.

The price of gold is hovering near $400 an ounce, putting a gleam in the eye of placer miners. It's also causing nervousness among scientists concerned about fish and flooding in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.