Group wants water-use halt

A Rockford Bay neighborhood group wants Idaho to stop issuing new water withdrawals from Lake Coeur d’Alene until a study is done to see how Kootenai County’s rapid growth is affecting the picturesque icon.

The Coalition for Positive Rural Impact at Rockford Bay and Loffs Bay asked the Idaho Department of Water Resources for the water moratorium on the lake and its tributaries Jan. 23.

The study would calculate the amount of water that leaves the lake each year in a variety of ways – from irrigation to evaporation to flows over the Post Falls dam into the Spokane River.

Bob Haynes, regional manager for the agency’s Coeur d’Alene office, said such a survey is already in the works. But he isn’t sure if a moratorium on all water requests is warranted.

He estimates that about four requests are received a year, ranging from the owner of a small lakefront lot who can’t dig a well to larger demands from developers, including those who want to build luxury golf retreats.

“The questions and concerns … raised are valid,” Haynes said Wednesday.

The water-use study could take more than a year and is only in a preliminary stage. Helen Harrington, a hydrogeologist in the Boise office spearheading the study, wasn’t available for comment.

Jai Nelson, the coalition’s spokeswoman, lives next door to the Club at Black Rock – the area’s first exclusive waterfront golf retreat. She began researching how much lake water the club uses after owner Marshall Chesrown announced plans for a 1,100-acre expansion. He also asked the state to amend his water permit so he could irrigate the additional property, including a second golf course and a nine-hole, par-three course.

The coalition and the Kootenai Environmental Alliance protested Black Rock Utilities’ water permit, arguing the development wants to take too much water.

Chesrown has said that the groups’ information is inaccurate and that he’s not asking for more water, just to spread over more land what he’s already authorized to take.

The experience sparked Nelson’s quest for the moratorium.

“They (the state) can’t just willy-nilly be giving permits to Gozzer, Powderhorn, Black Rock and Chateau de Loire,” Nelson said, referring to other private golf retreats. “The (moratorium) request was the catalyst they need to take a look at this.”

The water resources department decides who can take water from the lake. Yet Idaho law doesn’t require the agency to track how much water is actually used.

Until recently, not too many people cared how much water was pumped from the 32,000-acre lake to supply water districts, irrigators, mills, waterfront homes and golf courses. For most, it’s nearly impossible to imagine the lake not filling with water each year.

That has changed with the numerous requests for large waterfront developments.

Now some people want to know how much development Lake Coeur d’Alene can sustain before the water starts to recede, leaving docks dry, perhaps endangering fish and ultimately sapping the recreation-dependent economy.

The amount of water in the lake also has become a pivotal issue in Avista’s complicated, years-long attempt to relicense its Spokane River dams, including the utility’s Post Falls dam about nine miles downriver from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Greg Delavan of the Coeur d’Alene Lakeshore Property Owners Association hadn’t heard about the proposed moratorium but he doesn’t think it’s a solution. He said it’s valid to discuss water-use issues, especially in context of the dam relicensing.

“My fear is people are just making this a leverage excuse to stop something else,” Delavan said. “My fear is it’s being done for the wrong purposes.”