WATER USAGE: What about the aquifer?

"Five billion gallons and counting!" The headline was alarming, but what does it really mean? Remarkably, the New York Times coincidentally ran a frightening article the same day entitled "America is using up its groundwater like there's no tomorrow." At the rate we are using water, is Kootenai County in danger of running out of groundwater?

We rely upon the incredible Rathdrum aquifer to supply the vast majority of our water needs. So what is the health of the aquifer? If we are using five billion gallons and counting, is the aquifer being depleted, or on an annual basis is it being replenished naturally from inflows from rainfall and the lakes and rivers that feed into the aquifer?

That, it seems to me, is the real question that I urge the Press to address in a follow-up article. Is the aquifer stable, or is it being depleted? What has been the history of depletion/replenishment over the past 10, 20 or 50 years? Given population growth projections for the coming years, what are the projected trends for the aquifer for the next 10 to 20 years?

JIM DUFF

Coeur d’Alene