SPOKANE, Wash. — After weeks of running dry, water has returned to stretches of the Spokane River following Avista’s annual post-Labor Day increase in water releases through the Post Falls Dam.
The transformation happened quickly. Just days before, visitors could walk into the middle of the riverbed and stand on exposed rocks. Now, the Spokane Riverkeeper measures water depths at 8 feet in those same locations.
Jule Schultz, the Waterkeeper at the nonprofit that monitors the rivers levels called Spokane Riverkeeper, described the dramatic change.
“This is stunning. I mean, it’s risen so much, right? The entire river is filled from bank to bank with water.”
The water level increase stems from Avista’s yearly practice of adjusting dam operations each year after Labor Day. Before the holiday, the utility released 500 cubic feet of water per second through the dam. To put that in perspective, one cubic foot is roughly the size of a basketball, meaning the dam was releasing the equivalent of 500 basketballs of water every second.
After Labor Day, Avista increased that flow to 850 cubic feet per second. The extra 350 cubic feet per second allowed water to travel further downstream and refill sections that had dried up during the summer months.
Avista is federally required to reduce flow from the dam when water levels in Lake Coeur d’Alene drop below certain thresholds.
The sudden return of water caught some hikers by surprise. Linda Pederson, was out hiking with her family at the Barker Trailhead and had planned to show her nephew how dry the riverbed had become. “I was shocked when the water was here. It just was so quick that it came back,” Pederson said.
Another hiker, Andrew Zyev, described the unusual conditions before the water returned: “At some point, it seemed like the river was flowing backwards towards Idaho, which is really odd to see.”
Multiple factors contribute to the low water levels in this section of the river. Water seeps into the aquifer, and this year’s snowpack was low.
Spokane Riverkeeper says while it’s a good thing that water has returned, they are concerned that a lot for the ecosystem that was once there is dead.
“Fish could come back, but there’s just no food for them,” Schultz said.
The Riverkeeper says that if the Spokane River continues to dry up annually, the recovery process for the river could take longer each year.
This marks the second consecutive year the Spokane riverbed has dried up. The Riverkeeper noted that the drying occurred 12 days earlier this year compared to last year.
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