QUESTION: Why is Remington Recreational Water Sewer District approaching other water districts asking them to join Remington Water District?
ANSWER: It’s all part of the RAFN (Reasonably Anticipated Future Need) project that has been initiated in response to the State of Washington and City of Spokane’s concern over water rights/needs in the future.
WE ARE NOT DOING THIS BECAUSE WE WANT TO TAKE OVER SYSTEMS FOR MONETARY GAIN.
We are doing this for the following reasons:
1) We have been approached by the Department of Water Resource to acquire other water systems that are deficient in meeting fire flow and water needs for their customers in the northern part of Kootenai County. Unfortunately, because we have run our system well over the years, we have been targeted by these agencies to be the go to district for this task.
2) We are in a position to assist other systems to upgrade their systems to provide 1,000 gpm fire flow protection, which would lower homeowners insurance rates, improve water service and quality for our neighbors.
3) We have experience in building a quality system. We have one of the lowest insurance rates in the area because of fire flow protection. Northern Lakes Fire District uses our system for fighting fires. We have backup generators that are capable of providing demand and fire flow during power outages.
4) We are here to help, not take advantage of our neighbors.
Below is a summary of this project.
In 2014 the Idaho Legislature appropriated $500,000 dollars to the Idaho Water Resource Board (IWRB) “to conduct joint water needs studies in coordination with Northern Idaho communities to ensure water availability for future economic development”. IWRB contracted with the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI) to conduct those studies. The goal of these efforts was to provide the underlying information, such as population projections and water demand, to support water right applications based on the Reasonably Anticipated Future Needs (RAFN) provision of Idaho Law that allows municipal water providers to request water for needs that are farther into the future than is ordinarily permitted. The results of the study target projected water needs for 2045.
Part of the study process involved commitments on the part of some of the water purveyors to supply water to areas beyond their existing service boundaries. The Remington Water District is one the purveyors that made such a commitment. Your existing system is within the area that the Remington Water District has agreed to provide service to should the need arise.
The source of water for most of the developing areas of this region is the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. It is a resource that is shared with the Spokane area. The Rathdrum Prairie aquifer is also the source of recharge to the Spokane River in Washington. Depletions to the aquifer, whether in Idaho or Washington, affect recharge to the river in Washington. For this reason the State of Washington no longer issues new water right permits for water from the aquifer. The state of Washington performed studies to determine what they believed was a desirable flow in the river through downtown Spokane and established a minimum flow for that amount with an effective date of February 27, 2015. Because of the IWWRI study, all purveyors choosing to file a RAFN water application were able to do so ahead of the Washington in-stream flow right.
Being able file a water right application earlier than the Washington in-stream flow right is important because the basic premise of water right law in both Idaho and Washington is that “first in time is first in right”. This means that in times when not enough water is available for all who have rights, those with oldest rights are preferred.
The Remington Water District is seeking your support for the RAFN water right application it has filed with Idaho Department of Water Resources.