Many Area Water Systems Outdated, Inadequate

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And thousands of those people live in communities with outdated water systems for removing those germs.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.

Under federal law, enforced by the state, surface water systems were supposed to be upgraded by 1993. They’re all working to upgrade, said Steve Tanner of the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality.

“The bottom line is financial,” said Mac Pooler, Central Shoshone’s manager. “Where does the extra money come from?”

His district’s options include sharing Enaville’s ground-water supply, but that would mean high pumping costs would replace the current gravity-fed system. Also being considered is a $2.5 million filter system that would continue to use water from Big Creek.

One source of hope for Pooler is reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The bill written by Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, would set up a revolving, low-interest loan fund.

The bill unanimously passed the Senate in November.

Water managers have another reason to hope it becomes law: It would repeal some testing requirements that are not only very expensive but, in some cases, unnecessary. Why, they ask, should they test for industrial chemicals in a rural neighborhood with no factories?

“That will make it easier for small systems like ours to survive,” said Bob Paffile. He is a board member for the 150-home Kootenai County Water District No. 1, which draws its supply from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Tanner already has the authority to waive tests once they turn up negative. One example, he said, is an $800 test for dioxin that is supposed to be repeated four times a year.

, DataTimes