POOR PLANNING: Hayden Lake at peril?

On Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. Kootenai County leadership will decide if “Poplar Estates at English Point” (MSP24-0003) should be approved.

The decision could impact all of North Idaho who enjoy swimming at Honeysuckle Beach, fishing the lake for an Idaho record pike or boating with family! 

Leaders without understanding the regional geology of the 20-acre, eight residential lots project may allow septic tanks. Any leakage will allow sewage to drain down a thin veneer of soil and decomposing basalt fragments to the upper surface of the “Columbia River Basalt” flows. These basalts will act as a subterranean stream surface to channel contaminated waters into nearby Hayden Lake.  

And without understanding the Belt Supergroup Formations of mostly impervious mudstones, which underlie the basalt flows, homes will attempt to share (including cisterns) 6 to 10 gallons of water per minute from a well about 400 feet in depth. 

Lacking infrastructure for the great influx of new people creates another Kootenai County problem.           

Kootenai County Leadership, please consider risks to Hayden Lake waters and reject this poorly planned project. 

JIM PEARL, geologist

Hayden Lake