Nature's laboratory. University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene has a new laboratory and research vessel to study North Idaho lakes.

North Idaho lakes and waterways will become a proving ground for future scientists charged with understanding complex natural systems and their relationships with human beings.

University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene faculty and student researchers are studying how decades of mining pollution impact water quality and learn if current and future cleanup efforts are actually working in a new laboratory at the Harbor Center.  They are also studying hazardous algae blooms such as seen in Fernan and Hayden Lakes with an eye towards finding ways to reduce or eliminate future blooms, and the economic benefits healthy lakes provide the region.

“It will be a world-class laboratory bringing scientists from the University of Idaho and around the world to help us better understand issues challenging our region’s lakes and how we as a community can help protect them now and into the future,” said Dr. Mark Solomon, a University of Idaho water research scientist and interim director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute.

Solomon said researchers using the lab will work closely with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

“We’ll be able to coordinate and build the best picture of the lake possible,” said Solomon. “One of the most interesting things is looking at the relationships of current loading of heavy metals like zinc and what that means in terms of maintaining water quality.”

The Idaho Water Resources Institute, run by the University of Idaho, also has installed a new dock at the Harbor Center that will house a research vessel. The 20-foot boat will help perform studies on Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River. It also will be used in other northern Idaho lakes, such as Hayden Lake and Lake Pend Oreille.  

“We’ve been on the edge of the Spokane River, but we’ve never had direct access to the important thing we want to study,” said Solomon. “We’ll be able to place research instruments in and around the lake. We can take samples of lake water and sediments, and bring them back to the lab for analysis.”

The University of Idaho is part of a bigger effort to rid the region’s waters of potentially dangerous metals like zinc and lead. The new lab is expected to complement current water quality monitoring and if a $1.8 million grant proposal is approved next spring, the scope of the lab’s work will increase.

“The studies to be conducted by U of I are expected to provide important information that will be helpful to cleanup agencies and local counties and homeowners in better understanding the health of Lake Coeur d’Alene and the likely triggers of declining lake health,” said Ed Moreen, a local EPA project manager.

By MARC STEWART

Staff writer