MY TURN: Vote with prairie, aquifer in mind

Our area was settled years ago by miners, loggers, grass and livestock farmers and millwrights after centuries of tribal stewardship. Our bounty of natural resources appeared to be bottomless. 

Yet here we are 150 years later, and the bounty is dwindling faster than any of the settlers could have imagined. We are not good stewards for these times ahead and need to re-engage our leadership.

We share our aquifer with eastern Washington, and the gold rush is on to preserve and protect the now endangered resource for all business and survival of our way of life. 

The grass and cattle farmers are aging out and either hoping to pass on the family farm or sell off acreage to the highest bidder. It is their right to do so, especially when the cost to water grass, or feed and breed livestock, no longer pencils out. We, the current and future citizens, cannot expect altruism by these landowners to save our prairie. 

We see the extension of sewers and water to serve multiple apartment complexes collaring the farms and pinching into the fields in rapid high-density builds. The other route is the picket fenced 2-acre houses with septic tanks leaching into the aquifer with unaudited water usage that hits the aquifer like armies of ants picking the bones. 

Potable water is the world’s next gold. Less rainfall or snow pack, more users, less aquifer recharge. 

Many recent arrivals here left states where water was not their own, costs increased and availability was vanishing. Kootenai County should see restrictions, drought-tolerant vegetation and water awareness instead of requiring lawns and high water-use plantings. Shade trees, native plants and bee and bird pollinators are all at risk without serious reset and intentional advocacy. 

Many detractors criticize the apartments springing up everywhere. The most efficient use of land, sewer and water is compressed into these builds. There is more permeable land left when you go up rather than sprawl out. 

When we compress high-end housing into two- or three-story boxes surrounded by asphalt, concrete and black roofing, we also fail to serve the aquifer. Runoff from cars, roofing and hardscape all go to our sewer system rather than percolate into the soil to be scrubbed and fed back into the aquifer. 

If we condense our building envelopes into condominiums and townhouses with dedicated green spaces and broad tree canopies, we get the housing we need in harmony with nature and the aquifer. 

Kootenai County and its cities have saturated the top end of housing at Gozzer, Blackrock, Riverstone and seen a much-needed growth in multifamily rental apartments. Totally passed over and ignored is the middle of the market — the first-time buyers, young professional couples wanting to get a foot into the door of home ownership, the fixed income retiree, the downsizing homeowner, the end-of-career manager wanting to live in our area and keep another property. 

The broadest swath of our taxpaying populace has been totally excluded and ignored. This should be our next focus — keep all our generations here and help our aquifer and green natural assets while filling a massive void in the market. 

I urge voters to assess the new slate of representatives and politicians as to their aerial view of our community past highways, crime and an unfettered loss of trees, prairie and an aquifer at risk.

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Lynn Fleming is a Coeur d’Alene resident.