December 2011 - Spokane River Association

RiverTalk
Table of Contents
President’s Message
Page 2
Safety News
Page 3
Templin’s Marina Update
Page 4
Board List & Contacts
Page 6
Membership
Page 7
Volume 17
December 2011
Issue 4
POST FALLS UPDATES
WATER RECLAMATION FACILITY
By Mike Neher
The City of Post Falls recently started up new wastewater treatment
units at the Water Reclamation Facility, or WRF, located at 2002 W. Seltice
Way. The WRF serves the communities of Post Falls and Rathdrum
with a combined population of 35,000 people. The improvements were
designed by JUB ENGINEERS of Coeur d’Alene. General contractor
RSCI of Meridian, Idaho, began construction of the $11 million project
in 2009.
Several improvements to control odor, produce biosolids and increase
treatment capacity were made so that the City can serve our growing
community well into the future. Additional improvements will be
needed in the coming years to meet new EPA requirements for removal
of phosphorus. Phosphorus in wastewater comes from the foods people
eat and is a nutrient for plant growth. It has been implicated in algae
blooms in Lake Spokane (aka Long Lake) on the Spokane River about
20 miles downstream of the City of Spokane. The WRF already removes
more than 90 percent of the phosphorus generated by the community.
Future additions to the Post Falls WRF will include filters to remove more
than 99 percent of the phosphorus. The improvements will be costly
but necessary to comply with increasingly more stringent water quality
standards.
SPOKANE DEDICATES HIGH TECH
TREATMENT FACILITY
By Jackie McDaniels
On December 1 , Spokane dedicated its new wastewater treatment facility, located at Trent and Freya. Their discharge permit was issued on November 29th and shortly thereafter the Sierra Club filed a request with the
Office of the Inspector General and the Washington State Auditor’s Office
to investigate the state Department of Ecology and the EPA for illegal
continued on page 6
st
Scenes from NIC Beach
By Jackie McDaniels
2
President’s Message
Jim Aucutt, President
Your property rights are
being threatened.
There are many issues facing the
Association. Your Board of Directors is constantly dealing with some
of these issues, and attending meetings to express the position of SRA
and to gather information. When
taking positions on any issue it is
always a matter of numbers. The
most often asked questions we receive are, “How many people live
on the river?” This is immediately
followed by, “How many members
do you have?” That is why it is important to retain your membership
in the Spokane River Association,
and if you are not currently a member, please consider joining us.
The hottest issue we will be facing in the near future are the proposed changes in the County Building Codes. This will affect a huge
number of our members. If you live
on the south side of the river, or on
the north side outside the city lim-
its of Post Falls, Huetter, or Coeur
d’Alene, then you are also affected.
Those living in the cities are not required to follow the County Codes.
The current code prohibits any
building or the use of any power
tool within 25 feet of the water.
Any work done in this 25’ foot zone
must be done with hand tools. The
environmentalists want to extend
this zone to 75 feet. The latest draft
of the code has reduced this slightly.
In the latest draft the 25’ zone remains in place and a new additional
50’ zone is set up. In this zone any
building or site disturbance is limited to a percentage of the area of
your lot and varies depending upon
the size of the lot.
This is the only restriction of this
type within the code. If you live next
to a school, a park, or other public
facility, you must abide by the same
code as the rest of the county. You
are not restricted as to how you use
your land just because the public
owns the adjacent property. For
waterfront property owners this is
not the case. We are denied the opportunity to develop our property as
all other property owners can. We
are singled out. Some of the environmentalists maintain that we need
to protect the natural beauty of the
waterway, and the waterfront property owners are spoiling this natural
beauty.
Some are arguing the waterfront
property owners might pollute the
waterway if they get too close. We
have long supported clean water,
have spent a lot of your dues money
on various efforts to protect the water. If some clear danger to the water exists because of adjacent home
owners, let us deal with whatever
the problem may be and not just
take over private property for public use.
The public use issue is along the
same line as the Sanders Beach issue. The City of Coeur d’Alene
passed an ordinance giving the public access to the beach. The property owners still owned the beach,
still paid property taxes on it, but
the public had full use of the beach.
Of course the property owner still
had to maintain and clean up the
beach. This case had to go all the
way to the Supreme Court before
it was settled, in favor of the home
owners. We hope this current attack
on private property rights will not
have to go that far.
In the last few years, on several
occasions, we have expressed opposition to the 25 foot setback, and
certainly have expressed opposition
to the proposed 75 foot. It looks like
the Planning Zoning Commission
has its mind made up to do something with the 75 foot proposal, and
probably the only chance we have,
is when this issue comes before the
Commissioners.
In the meantime express your
input to the Planning and Zoning
Commission to stop it before they
take final action. The instructions to
post your comments follow.
continued on page 6
Avista Water Information
Recording - Idaho:
208.769.1357
3
CLOSE “KAUL” FOR PWC RIDERS
By Ross Walkinshaw
As we all recall, last summer ber Bob Kaul’s home. (Sorry about
was a bit late getting started. The the pun.) He provided the photos
boat ramp and beach at Post Falls below.
didn’t open until after the Fourth
A boat coming downstream split
of July weekend. On most of the them. When the boat passed them,
nice days we did have there was a one PWC decided to jump the boat’s
lot of traffic on the river but there wake and ran into his brother. Both
were very few serious crashes. were injured, one badly enough to
An exception to this statement be taken to the hospital. The brothoccurred on Saturday, August 13th er who jumped the wake did receive
at about six thirty PM. Two broth- a citation from the Sherriff. Hopeers were going upstream together fully lessons were learned.
on two water bikes (PWC) in the
Wishing everyone a safe
Greeensferry area near board mem- and happy new year in 2012.
2011 BOATING
SEASON STATISTICS
By Jackie McDaniels
As the article to the left shows,
water recreation can be dangerous.
The Kootenai County Marine Division reported two fatalities during the 2011 boating season. One
involved the drowning of a scuba
diver near Corbin Park and the
other was at Carlin Bay where a
man fell off a boat into 130’ of water. The side scan sonar equipment
SRA contributed to funding, for
the Sherriff’s Department, was put
to good use and after triangulating
cell-phone signals from the night
of the reported drowning to narrow
down the location, the sonar team
was able to find the victim in just
over an hour and once divers were
in the water they found the man in
7 minutes.
Other statistics reported were 19
boating accidents, likely four times
that number were not reported, 22
Boating Under Influence arrests,
and 4,000 safety inspections completed. (200 more than last season)
INVASIVE SPECIES
UPDATE
At the last SRA Board meeting,
in December, the board was pleased
to have Tom Woolf, Aquatic Plants
Program Manager for the Idaho
Department of Agriculture as their
guest. He has recently moved here
from Boise to be more involved in
the program here in North Idaho.
Mr. Woolf explained that the
main focus of the program is at
boarder crossings into Idaho to
catch vessels being transported
from infested waters, as well as local inspection stations.
The board will be following
the program this year as it develops. For more information go to
www.100thmeridian.org.
4
December 28, 2011
Ahoy Captains and Shipmates,
The sounds of water lapping against your boat and the smell of sun tan lotion is in the air, so that must mean that it is
boating season. Ok, we have a little bit more time but it is always good to plan ahead for another season of water fun
and summer sun at Templin’s Marina.
We plan to have even more fun and excitement at the Marina this year, along with a partnership with Stan Craft Boat
Company which will have Master Craft Demo Boats on the water and their beautiful wood boats on display throughout
the summer. We will also be continuing our Thursday Night BBQ’s with Sammy Eubanks as entertainment, and be sure
to stop by and see new variations to our BBQ buffet’s that will make our never ending supply of ribs and chicken that
much more delicious.
It’s a privilege to announce that the same great team will be returning for the 2012 moorage season. Brian Collins will
be managing the crew in meeting all your needs with Natalie and Jacob ready to make each of your visits to our marina
a memorable one. Lauren Lind will be managing the River Grill and is “ready to wow” with new menu items and drink
specials that will leave your stomach full and your thirst quenched.
I and the rest of the Templin’s Marina crew look forward to seeing you on the water soon and making the 2012 boating
season one for the books. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me at any time. See you
soon.
Think Summer,
RJ Wieber
Brian Collins
Director of Food and Beverage | Marina Sales Manager
Marina Service Manager
Red Lion Templin’s Hotel on the River
Red Lion Templin’s Hotel on the River
Templin’s MarinaTemplin’s Marina
C: 208.350.0479
C: 208.350.0237
W: 208.777.1414 W: 208.777.1416
E: [email protected] E: [email protected]
photo from templinsmarina.com
5
6
President’s Message - continued from page 2
Go to kccode.com.
Board of Directors
Choose Code Drafts from the menu in the upper right.
Jim Aucutt
Sam Landrum
Sally Aucutt
208.755.1941
208.659.4026
208.755.1940
Under Step 1, click on ZoningPLUS.
Environmental
Rusty Sheppard
208.773.9116
Special Events
Safety & RiverWatch
Avista
Membership
Jack Domit
Jim Brush
Ross Walkinshaw
Bob Kaul
Jackie McDaniels
208.773.1413
208.651.5096
208.667.4105
208.773.2678
208.660.9583
Click the + sign by Chapter 5 Resource Stewardship
& Mitigation
in the left column.
President
Vice President
Secretary/Treasurer
Action Committees
John Pfau
Mike Neher
Board Members At-Large
Randy Brandt
City of Post Falls
208.666.1429
208.777.9857
Spokane Yacht Club
509.953.5260
Steve Cervi-Skinner
Ray Peterson
R. J. Wieber
602.618.9555
208.664.4914
Red Lion Templin’s 208.777-1416
Other Contact Info
Admin. Assistant &
Communications
Advertising Director
Jackie McDaniels
208.660.9583
Lisa Hamilton
208.964.3472
Mailing Address
P. O. Box 1737
Post Falls, ID
83877
SPOKANE WASTEWATER TREATMENT
On this page click the View icon.
Click the + sign Article 5-3 Resource Protection
Standards
Select 5-3-1 Delineation of Protected Resources
Select the vertical bar “Comments” displayed on
the left of the screen.
You may add your comments here. Your comments
will be available for all to view but your name will not
be displayed.
You will see from the comments already submitted
that the environmentalists are giving their input. One
comment even suggests the 75’ set back in not enough,
that it should be 150’. There will be some kind of set
back, the only question is will the voice of property
owners along the river be heard.
As always your comments are also appreciated, so
feel free to contact any Board Member. This item will
most likely be up for discussion at our Annual Meeting in May. We can only be effective if we adequately
express the desires of the membership. The decisions
are made by those who show up or participate.
continued from page 1
use of public funds to construct this
sewage treatment plant.
The plant cost $178 million to
build and Spokane County posted
the following statement describing
their plan for the plant’s use and expansion.
“The Facility serves the Spokane
Valley area of the County. Its capacity is 8 million-gallons-per-day
(mgd) and is expandable to 24 mgd.
The Facility will achieve treatment
levels for nutrients that are some
of the most stringent in the United
States. The new Water Reclama-
tion Facility is needed for several claimed water for beneficial reuse.”
key reasons: 1) to supplement the
Kootenai County facilities are
treatment capabilities of the City of looking at similar upgrades to meet
Spokane’s RPWRF, 2) to accommo- NPDES permitting standards.
date thousands of new connections
as a result of the County’s extensive
septic tank elimination program
(for the protection of the Spokane
Valley – Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer),
3) to allow for at least 20-years of
growth, and 4) to comply with permitting requirements for protection of the Spokane River and its
in-stream reservoirs. Additionally,
the Facility will produce Class A re-
7
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
By Jackie McDaniels
As I write this article the wind is
blowing like crazy, there is no snow
on the ground and it is almost 2012.
I’m guessing, like me, many of you
are okay with not shoveling much,
so far. My how things can change
here in North Idaho from winter to
winter.
Change, brings me to the topic
of this article. The SRA board of
directors is considering making a
change to the format of our annual
meeting. In recent years attendance
has been down at the annual May
meeting and more and more members are staying away due to the increasing cost of the meal. In today’s
tough economy, we understand that
this can be a deterent. So here’s
what is being considered.
We could keep the customary
dinner and meeting or there could
be a meeting that could include either appetizers and beverages or just
coffee and cookies, at no cost to the
members.
The SRA by-laws state that the
meeting must be held in Post Falls
but the format is up to the board and
the membership. We want to know
what you want your meeting to be.
The 2012 dues invoices will be
going out in a couple of weeks. Included will be a section for you to
select what type of meeting you
would prefer. Please take the time
to choose and return your response
to us so we can do what you want.
The purpose of the annual meeting is to keep you informed of what
local, regional and federal entities
are doing to protect and maintain
the Spokane River. It is also a time
for you to get to know and elect
your SRA board members as well
as seeing old friends and neighbors.
I am looking forward to hearing
from you in the new year. Please let
me know if you have any questions
or concerns. I am always happy to
help in any way I can. You can reach
me by phone at 208.660.9583 or via
email at [email protected].
Be sure to check out the SRA
website-www.spokaneriver.org
for updates and information between issues of River Talk.
I would love to share your
photos in the newsletter or on the
website. Please feel free to send
them anytime.
Become a Spokane River Association Member!
Annual dues are only $50. SRA is committed to promoting safety and good stewardship of the river.
The more members we have, the stronger our voices. Please join us!
□ “Sign Me Up!”, Check Enclosed. □ I’m already a member, but my contact information has changed in the last 6 months.
Name (and Spouse)___________________________________________________Date___________________________
Address___________________________________________________________________________________________
City______________________________________________________________________________________________
Telephone (Home)___________________________________________________________________________________
Email Address______________________________________________________________________________________
The land I own is _______ Residential _______Commercial _______ Industrial _______ Recreational _______Other
I am a resident _________ Full Time ________ Part Time _________Non-Resident
Comments_________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please mail your check to:
Spokane River Association
PO Box 1737, Post Falls, ID 83877
Questions? Call Membership Chair (temp): Jackie McDaniels at (208) 660-9583 or [email protected]
Spokane River Association
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
POST FALLS, ID
PERMIT NO 74
P O Box 1737
Post Falls, ID 83877
Or Current Resident