HAYDEN LAKE - Kim Ann Erk believes Alpine Meadows' water system is a disaster waiting to happen.

But help is on the way for the district serving 104 users in the Rimrock area north of Hayden.

The district will receive a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant through the state to construct a secondary well source, increase capacity and replace part of a distribution line.

"As more people are moving in, our system is too small to keep up," said Erk, a district board member. "Our system was put in in the early 1970s, so it's been steadily degrading.

"We really need to upgrade our system and, without this assistance, we wouldn't be able to do it."

District voters last fall approved a $1.8 million bond levy that will also help with improvements. Water rate hikes will be phased in over the next five years.

"Our water bills are going to double, but it's a matter of having a choice between having water or no water," Erk said. "If we don't upgrade the system, our property values will be nothing. People take water for granted."

Erk said the district is mostly residents of middle and low incomes, so the increases will be felt.

She believes the patchwork approach to maintaining the system has gotten the district by in recent years, but that won't cut it in the near future.

"It's at the point of nearing its lifespan," she said.

The district in 2011 received a $20,625 drinking water planning grant from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to prepare a water facility plan to address excessive water loss, inadequate water storage and a backup water source. The other half of that project was funded by the district.

"We were pumping two million gallons a month and losing a million," Erk said.

Erk said she'd rather not have the district wait for a catastrophe as that would bring on more problems. She said the system has had minimal contamination issues in the past, but believes it could be on the brink of that without the upgrade.

"We've never been red-flagged for violations because we've taken care of the system, but the system is wearing out and we're trying to be proactive to upgrade before a catastrophic failure," Erk said.