Lake Pend Oreille level on the rise

SANDPOINT — Lake Pend Oreille is inching up to its summer pool elevation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced.

The corps will gradually raise the lake level until it reaches an elevation of 2,062 feet above mean sea level by the end of June. The lake level was being operated at between 2,051 and 2,052 feet when the refill operation started on April 1.

The lake level was measured at 2,052.03 feet on Wednesday, according to operators at the corps’ Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River.

The corps plans on reaching a level of 2,054 to 2,056 feet by the end of this month.

The refilling of Lake Pend Oreille is not expected to interfere with a project to restore the Pack River Delta, said Chip Corsi, the Idaho Department of Fish & Game’s Panhandle region supervisor.

Workers had been building up crumbling islands in the delta and installing engineered log structures to redirect the flow of the Pack River to curb erosion.

“We got that work done in time,” Corsi said.

The department recommended a deeper winter drawdown of Lake Pend Oreille last fall because of a limited population of spawning female kokanee. Fish & Game tends to recommend a lower winter lake level if the spawning population is less than 70,000 fish.

Last fall’s spawning population was estimated to be about 31,000 fish. A slighter drawdown expands the amount of shoreline spawning habitat.

The drafting of the lake to 2,051 feet this winter proved to be a boon for the construction of the U.S. Highway 95 bypass.

“A lot of the work depends on low water and can only be done at low water, so we really tried to take advantage as much as a possible,” said Barbara Babic, ITD’s Panhandle spokeswoman.

Cofferdams, enclosures which will create dry work areas in Sand Creek for the construction of piers and other support structures, are being installed so work is not halted by the raising of the lake.

“They are working to be prepared for the higher water,” Babic said.