Future of lake reflects your future, too

The health of Lake Coeur d’Alene is now under a scientific microscope that, with plenty of other influences exerting their will, is expected to take some two years before a clear course for managing the lake is charted.

Last week, the National Academies of Science-led project consumed nine hours of data — and opinion-sharing before a broad digital audience. Much of what was discussed is not new: Many tons of potentially dangerous minerals, mostly from years of mining up in the Silver Valley, now sleep on the lake bed.

We know this. Over the past few decades, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Quality, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the governor of Idaho and many civic and business leaders in Kootenai County have been engaged in trying to figure out how to best preserve the heart of our region.

Opinions vary greatly, from those who have proposed dredging up and trying to remove hazardous minerals to those who just as adamantly declare that releasing toxic materials from their dormant state could kill the very thing we all want to save.

Mr. and Mrs. Average resident have a vested interest in this experiment, even if they aren’t aware of it. Were Lake Coeur d’Alene to be shut down while years-long remediation efforts attempt to clean the lake beds, what do you think happens to property values? If you’re among those who would rejoice at a mass exodus from the region and a return to dirt-cheap housing, why, a scorched-earth handling of the lake might accomplish that overnight.

Our point is not to pitch one perspective over any other, but to emphasize that everyone — and we mean everyone — ultimately wants the same thing: A high quality of life built, in many regards, around the natural centerpiece of our region. And to note that what’s discussed and debated in the first formal week of the two-year project means very little with so much more analysis and debate to come.

When those conclusions finally are reached, whatever they are, all should be able to move forward because the conclusions will be based in science, presumably with no shortage of common sense injected into the equation.

And for those of you who might be standing on the sidelines, yawning at the lake proceedings between all the other attention-grabbing things in your lives, we submit that this endeavor is worth every bit of interest you can spare. That’s your lake, after all.