Lake CdA fills to inches below summer level

POST FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Avista Utilities has had to slow the output of Lake Coeur d’Alene at Post Falls Dam so the lake can fill for the summer. Avista hydroelectric operations engineer Patrick Maher says normally, the lake fills on its own with spring runoff and rain. Maher says since April 17, Avista has raised the lake from about 5 feet below summer level to about 3 inches below the summer level of 2,128 feet. He says from now through mid-June, the lake should stay between 3 to 6 inches below summer level, at which time it will be raised to summer level. Over the next five weeks, whatever flows into the lake will also flow out and down the Spokane River, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.