IDWR pledges to keep Priest Lake level up

SANDPOINT — The director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources pledged on Tuesday try and keep Priest Lake’s water level at the statutorily mandated elevation.

“I have an obligation under the statute to ensure that we maintain those lake levels,” Gary Spackman said in a meeting with Bonner County commissioners.

The department is under pressure to keep the lake’s level at 2,437 feet above sea level, or at 3 feet as measured by a U.S. Geological Survey gauge at Outlet Bay, through the end of the recreation season.

The 3-foot level is required under Idaho law.

The department warned earlier this month that it might not be able to maintain that elevation due to severe drought conditions in the Panhandle. It advised homeowners on the lake to keep tabs on the lake’s level to determine when they should pull their boats from the water.

The advisory was meant to keep boaters from being caught unaware if the lake level were to drop. However, it inadvertently created a perception that the boating season was petering out.

“Part of it is a perception problem,” commission Chairman Cary Kelly said, pointing out that just the perception of low water or reduced recreational opportunities could keep people away from the lake’s resorts.

Bob Davis of Elkin’s Resort and the Priest Lake Chamber of Commerce said perception can harden into reality in people’s minds even if it’s not true.

“That perception just kills you,” said Davis.

Davis said litigation over caribou habitat fueled perceptions that snowmobile recreation was limited at Priest Lake, which resulted in a 90-percent decrease in snowmobile tourists.

“Lawsuits and judges’ decisions didn’t affect a big portion of the snowmobile area, but the perception was, ‘There’s no more snowmobiling. They don’t want us here,’” said Davis.

Past contracts with Avista Utilities, formerly known as Washington Water Power, called for flows at the Outlet Bay Dam to maintained at 60 cubic feet per second, but Spackman said that those contracts are no longer in place.

Spackman said IDWR may reduce that flow to 30 cfs if it helps keep the lake at summer pool. However, timing would be essential.

“I’m ready to take some action, but I don’t want to take that action too quickly. I also want to act quickly enough that we don’t miss an opportunity to keep water in the lake,” he said.

Representative Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, urged the department to send the message that it would do everything within its power to keep the lake up.

“What, ultimately, people would like to see is that gate shut completely. It’s not going to shut down the flow of the river and if the 3-foot (level) rises, it’s just going to go over the top of the dam,” said Scott.

Commissioner Glen Bailey agreed.

“Water would start to overflow naturally, so it would be self-regulating in that sense,” Bailey said.

Commissioner Todd Sudick said downstream tributaries would aid flows in the Priest River and that the Idaho Department of Fish & Game told him it is not mandating that the river be kept at a certain level to aid downstream fish populations.

“There’s no imperatives for fisheries. There’s no imperatives for endangered species,” Sudick said.