Residents asked to curb water use

SANDPOINT — After losing an election to expand its water treatment capacity, the city is now asking residents to abide by a number of temporary water restrictions.

In May, voters rejected a $20.5 million bond to overhaul the city’s lake water treatment facility, which would have expanded the plant’s treatment capacity from approximately 3.5 million gallons per day to 10 million gallons per day.

Between its Little Sand Creek and lake water treatment plants, the city can safely offer 5.5 million gallons of water per day, according to Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk. While the capacity is sufficient for the majority of the year, Van Dyk said dry weather and added lawn watering in the summer months can push usage to dangerous levels. Daily usage in early July averaged 4.5 million gallons per day, which is twice the average June usage, according to Van Dyk.

Demand has yet to exceed capacity this summer, but with more hot weather in the forecast, Van Dyk said reaching the 5.5 million gallons per day mark is a strong possibility. Once capacity is reached, the city’s water reservoir will drop, which could affect fire protection and lower water pressure throughout the system.

To guard against over usage, the city is asking residents to water laws on an odd-even schedule. Residents with odd numbered addresses should water on odd days of the week, while those with even numbered addresses should water on even days.

Van Dyk also suggests watering early in the morning or in the evening, not watering every week, keeping grass at least two inches long to shade roots and hold moisture, and using a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways.

Because so much is dependent on the weather, Van Dyk said he has no way of knowing how much water will be used this summer.

“It would depend on what the flows were in Sand Creek,” he said. “If Sand Creek maintains two million gallons per day or one and a half gallons per day, we’re in good shape, because we can make up three or three and half pretty easily from the lake. It’s all dependent on how much people water and what the runoff from Sand Creek is.”

If usage begins to regularly exceed capacity, Van Dyk said the city would likely implement mandatory restrictions for the rest of the summer. Residents will have another chance to vote on the water bond in November, and Van Dyk said if the bond does not pass, water restrictions and higher rates will become a normal part of summer.

“It’s either (passing a water bond) or conservation, and that means having rates that penalize those who use quite a bit more water in the summer,” he said.