Cities trying to conserve water
Adah Sedlmayer got her gloves dirty in her Post Falls yard during late morning.
As her dog watched, she weeded and toiled in the soil and a sprinkler doused plants under her eaves and bathed a burgeoning garden.
Sedlmayer’s was the only sprinkler visible for 10 blocks between Idaho and Spokane streets at 11:30 a.m., a half-hour before the city’s watering ordinance became the law of the sunshine-soaked land.
Post Falls residents may not water during the hottest parts of the day, from noon to 6 p.m., when water evaporates and doesn’t soak into the ground, said public works director Terry Werner.Two residents have had their water shut off for violating the rules after warnings. Sedlmayer planned to shut off her sprinklers by noon, she said.
The ordinance, which has been around for several years but only strongly enforced since 2005, seems to be working, Werner said. Although people can receive a $300 fine for each violation, no tickets have been written, he said.
Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene encourage residents to reduce water consumption not only during the sweltering summer months but year-round as more people move into the area.
Each city has its own way of dealing with the issue.
Post Falls has the watering ordinance and Coeur d’Alene began a utility credit program on April 1.
Eight people have taken advantage of the credit program in its first two months, said Jim Markley, the Coeur d’Alene water superintendent.
Markley called the program his “baby” and said the city, with help from the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, is still trying to advertise and encourage residents to take advantage of the $75 credit that will show up on their water bill.
If people purchase a rain sensor, soil moisture sensor or hose bib timer – hardware to help shut off sprinklers at times when clouds can do the work for them or to regulate how long they run – they will receive the credit, which is advertised on utility bills.
A 10 percent decrease in water use in the city could help save millions of gallons of water in August alone, Markley said.
Post Falls expects to increase its use by millions of gallons, even with aggressive ordinance enforcement.
Werner said at the rate people are using water this year, by October, the end of the city’s fiscal year, an additional 100 million gallons will be pumped out of city wells compared with the previous year.
The increase is mainly caused by the city’s fast growth. So far this year, 580 million gallons of water have been pumped, while at the same time last year only 532 million gallons had been used, Werner said.
But the figure is a bit misleading. Actual water use per household has been dropping each year, he said.
In 2004, individual users, which include households and commercial users, averaged 266 gallons of water a day, while that number dropped to 194 gallons in 2005.
It’s a start, Werner said.
“I just think people should know that it’s important to conserve water,” Werner said. “It’s not an endless supply.”
Sedlmayer said she agreed with the conservation-oriented ordinance.
“I don’t really notice people watering when they shouldn’t,” Sedlmayer said, adding with a laugh: “I think most everybody follows it, but you never know if they really need (to water) or if they forgot to shut it off.”
Barry Rosenberg, Kootenai Environmental Alliance president, said the group has been working with the cities to educate citizens on aquifer water supplies.
“That’s one of the biggest problems we have is that there’s a perception we have an overabundance of water,” Rosenberg said.
A study to be completed by next year should shed light on whether the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is being recharged at a sustainable rate for what’s being pumped from it, he said.
“We don’t know what the future is going to hold,” he said. “We don’t want to squander it.”