Even before the advent of what promises to be a long, hot, dry summer, Avista is already in the midst of a delicate balancing act, trying to keep Lake Coeur d'Alene full while feeding the Spokane River.
The Spokane utility has begun to cut the amount of water flowing over the hydropower dam at Post Falls, putting a squeeze on river flows that aren't restricted - in normal years - until the end of June.
Because of almost non-existent snow packs and paltry spring rain, the flow at Post Falls has been only a fraction of its usual 18-thousand cubic feet per second.
As of this weekend, only about 36-hundred cubic feet of water every second was falling over the dam, and the anemic flow will be reduced even further this week, to about 14-feet per second.
The normal dam gate closure, to bring the lake up to its summertime pool elevation, usually occurs toward the end of June.
Restricting the dam spillage chokes water flow in the Spokane River. Avista has warned that even the relative trickle of 14-hundred feet a second may be reduced even more by the end of next week, just a bit above the required minimum flow of 600 feet a second.
The minimum flow is meant to protect fish and recreation in the river. Senior water rights holders will probably not be affected, but those with pending applications for river or aquifer water rights are probably out of luck.
