Hayden Lake panel has water plan

Kootenai County isn’t doing enough to protect Hayden Lake’s water quality, an advisory committee says, and that’s why a local sewer and water district should take over the county’s enforcement duties.

An advisory committee working on a plan to protect the popular recreational lake, which provides drinking water to more than 1,000 residents, has an idea for how to make sure developers, loggers and property owners around the lake don’t let erosion, lawn chemicals and stormwater further pollute the lake.

The committee wants the Hayden Lake Recreational Water and Sewer District to take over enforcement, and perhaps permitting, of the county’s site disturbance and stormwater rules. The Hayden Lake Watershed Advisory Committee will have a public meeting on the idea Wednesday.

Currently, Kootenai County is in charge of enforcement. When a property owner wants to build a home in the Hayden Lake watershed or anywhere in the county, they must get a building permit and follow the county’s rules for moving dirt and cutting into hillsides to ensure that the ground isn’t eroding into the water.

Once the home is built, the owner also must follow county rules for containing stormwater. These rules also are supposed to reduce the amount of fertilizers and lawn chemicals that reach the lake.

The advisory committee and sewer district members think the county hasn’t done a good job making sure people follow these rules. County officials agree they don’t have the manpower or cash to keep up with enforcement.

As a result, Hayden Lake’s waters are becoming more murky and weed-filled each year.

“We want to move aggressively in trying to do something about the adverse impact happening on the lake, particularly the impacts that are entirely preventable,” said Gerry House, the sewer district chairman who is also a member of the Hayden Lake Watershed Advisory Committee.

Yet the big question is whether the county could even legally delegate those duties if the County Commission was willing.

The sewer district currently taxes residents in its boundary about $15 annually for the owner of a $200,000 home, to provide sewer services and planning to protect the lake’s water quality.

The enforcement proposal could require residents within the district to pay more taxes – perhaps $9 more a year for the owner of that $200,000 home – to take over the county’s enforcement duties. The district would hire inspectors to make sure people within the district comply with the county laws. The district would seek administrative, civil or perhaps even criminal charges for violations.

The district would just enforce the rules within its boundaries. The county still would handle the rest of the county, even though some people on the advisory committee hope other water and sewer districts would adopt similar enforcement agreements with the county.

Kootenai County Planning Director Rand Wichman said he knows there’s a perception that the county isn’t doing adequate enforcement and that he needs more staff. He’s asking the County Commission to pay for another building inspector in the new budget under discussion.

Wichman said it’s very unclear whether the county can give up its enforcement authority. But he said it’s more likely the sewer district could give some of its tax dollars to the county so the county can hire more inspectors.

“There are different ways to do it,” Wichman said. “It’s a far more complex discussion.”

The watershed advisory committee is helping the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality formalize a plan to protect the 3,907-acre lake and its watershed so fewer pollutants get into the water.

DEQ’s 2000 water cleanup report – known as a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, report – shows Hayden Lake is considered threatened according to federal Clean Water Act guidelines. Increases in sediment nitrogen and phosphorus prompted the finding.

That means the state must outline ways to protect the lake from becoming polluted.

Advisory committee members say the most obvious way is enforcing the rules already in place. And that’s why it wants the sewer district to help.

After the initial 1994 Hayden Lake Watershed Management Plan was released, Kootenai County followed many of its suggestions and revised its site disturbance rules. One of the major changes was including a natural vegetation buffer that prevented building within 25 feet of the shoreline.

It’s these types of rules that the advisory committee claims aren’t being enforced.

Without enforcement, Bob Covington, who is the advisory committee chairman, said there is no reason for people to comply.

“The result is ongoing degradation,” Covington said. “You can find a dozen examples out there today.”

Covington swims in the lake every summer day and has watched the water get murkier and weedier each year.

“When you put on your goggles and swim for a mile, you really see what’s growing on the bottom,” he said.

House, who has lived near the lake his entire life, agrees. He said the majority of the problem is at the north and east end of the lake, but he’s slowly seeing changes to the Honeysuckle Beach area.

“Where there was white sand there’s now black mud,” House said. “Mother Nature usually moves all these lakes toward being a meadow. We are just accelerating the process by a few thousand years.”