WRIA 55/57 Update by Tom Wimpy

The Water Resource Inventory Area has been busy establishing a priority list for proposed projects in the area. I am pleased to see that the top priority is to continue the Little Spokane River gauging and may include adding a gauge at Diamond Lake to give a more complete picture of the flow within the watershed. There are gauges at Sacheen and Eloika Lakes and several on the Little Spokane River including Elk, Moon Creek and at Dartford.

The second ranking project is for a Wetland Restoration Feasibility study and Diamond Lake was included in this project by a Spokane County representative. The other possible restoration sites suggested from last year are near Liberty and Newman Lakes. The third ranking project is to develop a flow model for the West Branch of the Little Spokane. This is a small step in a project being headed up by the Pend Oreille Conservation District. The project will be considered at the next West Branch Meeting that will have happened by the time you read this. The fourth and fifth ranked projects involve water conservation efforts. This may be extremely important in the future to our lake and the Diamond Lake Water & Sewer District. Has anyone seen or heard some of the new ads trying to get the message out? I will continue updating this area as time goes on. I hope some of you are interested in this information because it will affect us as time goes on.