Five billion gallons and counting

COEUR d’ALENE — The city of Coeur d’Alene is on line to use 5.1 billion gallons of water this year, about 600,000 gallons more than last year.

“That’s a boatload,” said Terry Pickel, director of the city’s water department.

In a recent presentation to the City Council, Pickel expressed concerns about keeping up with the demand for water and whether the city should consider restrictions, like some neighboring cities. Spokane, for instance, restricts outside watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and limits watering to only four days a week.

Coeur d'Alene's water use for May, June and July alone was about 2.3 billion gallons, well up from 1.6 billion the previous year.

Come winter, the city typically has three of 11 wells in operation. These days, all 11 are pumping water to keep up with an average daily demand of about 35 million gallons.

The city has a maximum daily pumping capacity of about 49 million gallons per day.

Demand for water is only expected to increase.

Coeur d’Alene is projected to be home to about 75,000 people in 2025.

“We know that we’re going to keep growing,” Pickel said.

The hot, dry summer, despite a recent cool spell with some rain, has resulted in 75% of summer water consumption going for irrigation, Pickel said.

He said the city recently pumped nearly 19 million gallons in just four hours, between 2 and 6 a.m., which are the peak demand hours for irrigation.

“That is everything running full bore and draining our reservoirs rapidly,” he said.

He said there are steps for the city to consider to encourage conservation.

Coeur d'Alene's current single-family rate is $1.09 per 1,000 gallons up to 30,000 gallons. It increases to $1.57 per 1,000 gallons from 31,000 to 50,000 gallons and $2.14 after 51,000 gallons.

Pickle said most people who move here from out of state find those cheap rates and are glad to pay them.

“They want the green grass, they’re going to water it, they're going to pay for it,” Pickel said.

He said it would take an “astronomical” increase before most people would cut back on water usage based on cost. Rate increases are limited and can only go up as much as is needed to maintain the water system.

There are other steps the city could take to reduce water use.

It could enact a policy requiring minimum irrigation efficiencies and officials could work with the planning commission to reduce green space requirements for new developments or require low-water use landscaping features.

It could also look at a water-reuse system for irrigation.

Pickel said people should not water in the heat of the day, noon to 6 p.m., as much of that water evaporates.

"Water only what your landscape needs," he said.

Mayor Jim Hammond said areas like Palm Springs and Palm Desert have grasses that don’t require a lot of water.

“We can’t take for granted the resources that we have,” he said.

Councilman Dan Gookin said he agreed with the need to conserve water but wasn’t in favor of limiting watering times.

“I don't want to be the water police,” he said.

He said he didn't support an ordinance requiring minimum irrigation efficiency.

“To me, that’s more government,” he said.

He opposed reducing green space requirements for developers.

“I think green space is something that’s really important,” Gookin said.

Pickel said adding more wells isn't the answer. It costs about $1.5 million for a well, and that is before it has even pumped any water.

He said eight of the city's wells sit idle seven to nine months of the year.

“That's an expense that in the business world would be impossible to justify," he said. "In ours, it’s a necessity.”

The city’s two largest users of water, the parks department and the Coeur d’Alene School District, were asked to conserve and did, Pickel said.

Stefany Bales, the district's communications director, said they scaled back watering at most elementary schools to five days per week. It also reduced watering in shaded areas on school grounds.

The school district earlier stopped watering the field at Coeur d'Alene High School as it was recently replaced with AstroTurf.

City Parks Director Bill Greenwood also said they reduced watering at parks that use domestic water to every other day.

McEuen Park, Independence Point and City Park water is pumped from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Water for Atlas Park is pumped from the Spokane River, while water for Riverstone Park comes from the pond, which is piped in from the river.

He said the grass at parks where watering was reduced has browned a bit.

“It will be fine,” he said. “It’s a little stressed, but we’ll get it back.”

Future challenges await with the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides water to about 600,000 users. Pickel said it is not clear how many users it can support.

Water rights, which have been relatively easy to acquire in Idaho, are becoming exceedingly difficult to get, he said.

“Eventually we’re going to get to the point where we can't simply afford to do it and we can’t get the water rights to do it," he said.

Hammond said the city is “bumping up against the edge" of how much water it can produce.

“I don’t think that it’s sustainable,” he said.