Helping kids learn their water tables: Well driller Mark Pennick, left, welds on a new section of well casing while Kenny Hoyer moves more pipe into position on Thursday outside Woodland Middle School in Coeur d’Alene. Kootenai County’s Aquifer Protection District is drilling a model well to teach schoolchildren about the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, which supplies drinking water to approximately 500,000 residents in the region. Students in the Coeur d’Alene School District will take samples at the well, which is estimated to cost $20,000. H20 Well Service is doing the drilling work at cost, and educational programs should start in the fall. The Aquifer Protection District is funded by a $12 per parcel annual tax on private property owners and a $24 tax on commercial property.