$20M for Lake CDA health

COEUR d’ALENE — As boats cruised past in the background, Gov. Brad Little on Thursday announced that more money was being dedicated to protect and improve Idaho’s waters, including Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“Everybody knows how important this lake is to the community and to the state,” he said, while standing at McEuen Park. “And it’s also important to other people downstream.

“Our prosperity in the state is heavily dependent on this body of water,” Little said.

The governor was joined by Jess Byrne, director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, and members of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Advisory Committee.

Little said his “Leading Idaho” plan includes $80 million to improve water quality throughout the state.

The DEQ will prioritize nutrient reduction projects identified by the advisory committee in overseeing the funds. Grants will also help farmers, ranchers and dairies across Idaho implement best management practices to improve Idaho’s priority watersheds, Little said.

He said the state leveraged $450 million from federal funds and invested $44 million in General Fund dollars for safe water systems for its communities.

The funds will help improve local drinking and wastewater systems, with an emphasis on disadvantaged communities in need of major infrastructure upgrades.

Two million dollars were allocated in 2021 for water quality projects to benefit Lake Coeur d’Alene and Little announced another $20 million over the next few years for more lake projects.

“Many of us refer to Coeur d’Alene Lake as the gem of North Idaho, and we all want to keep it that way,” Little said. “That’s why this session my legislative partners and I championed new investments in the lake and for water quality across our state.”

Little thanked the advisory committee and Kootenai County for their help.

He said caring for the lake involves “everything that everybody does up here. And also we have to invest some money to basically mitigate some of the things that are happening or have happened in the past.”

Little said his goal has always been to make Idaho a place where children grow up and don't want to leave.

“The kids from North Idaho want to stay here, a lot because of that lake,” he said.

Shelley Austin, executive director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, was pleased.

“I think this is absolutely the best thing he could do,” she said.

Austin said Little was not only directing money toward water quality in an efficient and effective fashion, but highlighting it.

She said all lakes in North Idaho face challenges of climate change, invasive species and pollution.

"The most important thing he could do was bring attention to it,” she said.

DEQ director Byrne said the additional funding for water quality and health of Lake Coeur d’Alene "demonstrates the commitment that the governor has and that the state of Idaho has for the long-term well-being of the lake."

DEQ has several projects that will reduce the amount of nutrients going into the lake, including stormwater outfall removals.

Nutrient reduction is key, Byrne said, because it will help stabilize oxygen levels in the lake so heavy metals from a century of mining in the Silver Valley aren't released from the bottom.

“They're sequestered in the sediment, so the entire goal is to keep them there,” Byrne said.

Little said other uses of the $20 million will be upgrading wastewater systems and upstream stream channel restoration so less sediment runs into the lake.

He said there is much work yet to do for Lake Coeur d'Alene's health because people will continue moving to the area.

“We all know the population is growing, and we're going to have to do more and more," he said.