PL water study meeting nears
(Photo courtesy SARA K. WILLIAMS) This aerial impages shows sedimentation at the Thorofare.
PRIEST LAKE — A public information meeting and open house is being held Friday on the Priest Lake Water Management Study.
The meeting and open house runs from 4-7 p.m. at Priest Lake Elementary School, 27732 Highway 57.
No formal presentation is scheduled, although project representatives and display materials will be on hand. The public will have an opportunity to provide written comments and information on the proposed study alternatives for the project team to consider.
The purpose of the study is threefold — preserving lake levels through the recreation season, maintaining a minimum discharge of 60 cubic feet per second at Outlet Bay Dam during the recreation season and providing sustainable modifications to improve Thorofare access, navigability and water quality.
Finalization of the study is expected to be wrapped up by the end of the year, according to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
The study is being conducted by Mott MacDonald in Edmonds, Wash.
The state of Idaho allocated $300,000 for the study last year.
The company has undertaken multi-million water and stormwater projects here and abroad, in addition to a project that reconnected Cedar Bayou in Texas with the Gulf of Mexico, which restored marshes and an estaurine ecosystem, according to the company’s website.
The $300,000 study commissioned by the board will include a half-dozen elements including a hydrological analysis, improved water supply forecasting and the lake’s capacity for storing water in order to maintain a lake level that floats the summer recreation season.
Drought conditions in 2015 made it difficult to maintain required summer lake elevations and downstream flows.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.