Treatments on hold due to flows

SANDPOINT —  Herbicide treatments of Eurasian milfoil infestations in the Pend Oreille River are being postponed until next month because of high water flows.

Brad Bluemer, Bonner County's noxious weed superintendent, met with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials earlier this week and said he was told high river flows are expected to persist.

"It appears from the corps' data that the river flow is still two times what it was last year and there's no end in sight," Bluemer said on Wednesday.

The high river flow, brought on by this winter's abundant snowpack, would have blunted the effectiveness of the herbicide treatments, a conclusion Bluemer said is backed up by a dye tracing study being conducted the research and development arm of the corps.

"We have too much water flowing and that means control would be jeopardized. It just seems to make a lot of sense to wait until after Labor Day to finish the river treatments," he said.

Corps officials at the Albeni Falls Dam said the inflow and discharge at the dam is running at about 15,000 cubic feet per second.

Bluemer said the lake is filled to its summer pool elevation and flows at the dam can't be restricted because it could lead to flooding along the lake. In addition, dams upstream of Albeni Falls would also have to constrict their flows, he said.

"We don't have a choice. We're already at maximum lake level, so everything that comes in has to go out," Bluemer said.

The county planned to begin treating sites west of Sandpoint this week with triclopyr, but Bluemer said treating them now would be a waste of taxpayers' money because the sites would likely have to be re-treated when flows ease up.

Bluemer said Clean Lakes Inc. expects to complete herbicide applications in the Pack River Delta area next week.

The county caught some grief last year because a funding shortfall prevented infestations in the river from being treated. But Bluemer emphasizes that's not the case this year and the river sites will be treated.

"We just have to wait for this water to slow down," he said.

There has been speculation that dam operations are being influenced by power-generation demands in the region, but Bluemer said it remained unclear Wednesday if that is indeed the case.

"We can't get any evidence of that right now," said Bluemer.