Lunch & Learn: CDA Lake Management Plan - "Needs Assessment" Results

Description

Coeur d?Alene Lake is an increasingly popular recreational destination, an economic catalyst for Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington and the heart of the local community. The lake is part of the aboriginal homeland of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, with the Reservation located around the southern half.

As a result of historical mining activity in the Silver Valley, millions of tons of metals contaminated sediments (e.g., zinc, lead, and cadmium) are present on the lake bottom. Other human activities around the basin, such as logging, farming, and home building, contribute sediments and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) into the lake, often as a result of natural events such as snow, rain, and floods.

The primary environmental concern in Coeur d?Alene Lake is the potential for mobilization of contaminants such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc present in its bed sediments if lake bottom waters become depleted in dissolved oxygen as a consequence of eutrophication.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Department of Environmental Quality have been working together on the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan with the goal of protecting and improving lake water quality by limiting basin wide nutrient inputs that impair lake water quality conditions, which in turn influence the solubility of mining related metals contamination contained in lake sediments.

Join the Kootenai Environmental Alliance at Noon on Thursday, April 7th at The Iron Horse Restaurant to hear from Coeur d'Alene Tribe's restoration coordinator Rebecca Stevens and Becki Witherow discuss the CDA Lake Management Plan's Needs Assessment Results.