Cda Gets Problem Water Well Back In Use That Means Restrictions On Watering Unlikely

The prospects of water-use restrictions were doused last week as Coeur d’Alene got a problem-ridden well back on line just in time for hotter weather.

That means, barring another well malfunction and a long stretch of hot weather, watering cutbacks won’t happen this summer.

Barely two weeks ago, Mayor Al Hassell was asking people to be sparing at the tap as city workers battled to get the Locust Avenue well delivering water again. That pump originally seized up last winter after a power surge.

The pump was fixed but was damaged in shipping back to Coeur d’Alene. It was repaired again. A half-hour after going back in the ground, it developed serious problems with the lubrication system.

On try number three, the pump company appears to have delivered a working machine that has the Locust Avenue well flowing again.

The brush with mandatory watering restrictions is one sign that the Lake City’s steady growth is testing its water capacity. Simultaneously, the city is in some danger of having to abandon its most productive well.

Located on Hanley Avenue, that well shows increasing concentrations of trichloroethylene, a common solvent believed to have come from a metal-plating company and a variety of other sources.

The city has yet to exceed federal standards for average TCE concentration. But if TCE levels continue to climb, the well could be relegated to backup status.

Coeur d’Alene expects to have another water well on line next year. Demand is brisk enough that another new well will be needed in another five years, said Jim Markley, city water superintendent.

The city sells about 2.2 billion gallons of water a year drawn from five wells. Most summer months, the city pumps between 18 and 20 million gallons a day.

The peak - July 14, 1994 - was 22 million gallons in a single day.

In winter, 5 million gallons of water is consumed each day.

Coeur d’Alene seems to have a hefty appetite for water compared with other cities. The average local household uses about 150,000 gallons a year, compared with an average of 105,000 gallons per household per year nationwide, according to the American Waterworks Association.

Undoubtedly, lawns consume much of the area’s water. And while no one is suggesting people abandon their grass, a little less water use is easy to accomplish with no real change in lifestyle, Markley noted.

“I think some people believe more water is better,” he said. It actually can be worse.

Watering grass less frequently and for longer periods of time “promotes deep root growth,” Markley said.

Watering a little bit twice a day means the roots never grow. And that means “if you miss a day, the thing looks like it’s going to die,” he said.

, DataTimes