Lakes Council Lacks What It Takes Members Upset Panel Has No Power To Implement Plans To Protect Lakes

Six out of eight management plans meant to protect North Idaho lakes have little chance of success, say members of the Clean Lakes Coordinating Council.

The plans lack an agency to carry them out and money to do the work, according to a council report to Gov. Phil Batt.

“We have all these plans that are collecting dust on the shelves, and no one to implement them,” said council staff coordinator Lisa Prochnow.

The Legislature created the six-member volunteer council in 1989 to come up with plans to protect lakes in the five northern counties. But it gave the council no authority and little money. Prochnow, the only staff member, works parttime.

“We’re a toothless kitty,” said council member Bob Hammes. “We have no power to make any regulations, and no power to tax.”

Eight lake management plans have been written. Each calls upon state, federal and local governments to protect the water, primarily from nutrient pollution. They cover home and roadbuilding, logging, stormwater management, boating and other activities.

In the report, council members fret about the future of plans to protect Coeur d’Alene, Spirit, Hauser, Cocolalla, Hayden and Twin Lakes.

Only the plans for Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille are likely to succeed, they said.

The Priest Lake plan was mandated by a separate state law, which provided personnel and authority. The Lake Pend Oreille plan has a separate three-state organization to see that it is carried out.

The Clean Lakes Coordinating Council wants the state to come up with tax money to make the plans work, although it doesn’t ask for a specific amount or suggest how it should be spent.

Counties in particular need money to write and enforce ordinances, said member Dr. O.B. Scott of Coeur d’Alene.

The public needs to be better-informed about how individuals can protect the lake, according to the report. And current laws and regulations need better enforcement, it says.

The report also calls for better coordination among agencies to make the lake plans work. It praises the Panhandle Health District in particular for protecting water quality and says other agencies are doing what they can.

Only the state Transportation Department has turned its back on the lake-management plans, according to the council report.

“They have not attempted, to our minds, to do a thing to control runoff and erosion,” said Hammes.

Transportation officials in Coeur d’Alene were unavailable for comment Wednesday. No one in the Boise headquarters has seen the report, according to a department spokesman.

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