Despite a warm, dry winter and spring, water providers in Kootenai County are not too worried about the region's water supplies.

Like most cities and water districts throughout the region, Coeur d'Alene draws water from the Rathdrum Prairie - Spokane Valley Aquifer, which flows at the Idaho/Washington border at a rate of 650,000,000 gallons a day. The city provides water to residents primarily within city limits, and according to Water Superintendent Jim Markley, the city has 18,000 water accounts.

"And that's a carefully chosen word," he said. "It includes irrigation accounts - The Coeur d'Alene Resort is one account, and the little old lady down the street living by herself is one account. Basically it's the number of hook-ups we have."

The number of accounts translates to approximately 45,000 people.

Rationing of water in the Lake City isn't on the radar, he said, and with the condition of the aquifer there is no need to be concerned about that changing anytime soon.

"The aquifer is healthy and it's very prolific," Markley said. "We haven't been seeing any drops in aquifer levels."

Dalton Gardens also uses the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer to provide its 1,000 customers with potable water. JoAnne Baune, with the Dalton Water Association, told The Press that, despite it being an unusually dry season, there are no concerns about the water supply dwindling.

"It's never been an issue," she said.

Post Falls, which has 7,065 water connections, is experiencing normal operations for this time of year, said John Beacham, environmental manager.

"Demand is up, but we are not experiencing a difficulty in keeping up," he said. "At this point, we do not anticipate difficulties with maintaining our water supply."

Post Falls also draws water from the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley aquifer.

Beacham said there are no plans for rationing.

"If we were to see demand skyrocket beyond our ability to pump water then yes, this is always an option," he said. "This is most likely under a circumstance where multiple pieces of equipment fail. Under normal operations, we would not expect to implement rationing."

Several years ago, Post Falls implemented a "common sense" water conservation plan.

The plan calls for mandatory no watering from noon to 6 p.m. Customers are allowed to water new plants and lawns that are newly hydroseeded. Kids' backyard water actives are allowed to continue.

City officials believe water should be conserved during the hottest part of the day when irrigation does the least amount of good.

The program also requests that those with odd-numbered addresses voluntarily water on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and even-numbered addresses water on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

"Our effective conservation program and continued investment in infrastructure help us to be prepared for summer weather events," Beacham said. "At this time, we are not planning on implementing more stringent policing than prior years. Most, if not all, violations are resolved effectively through in-person education rather than fines or shutoffs."

Violations of the city code for water usage are typically dealt with via escalation of notices leading up to termination of service, Beacham said. There is a $35 charge for a hang-tag notice and another $35 charge for shutoffs. Both fees would apply if service is terminated.

Kevin Jump, the public works director for Rathdrum, said the city had its highest water use of the year on Tuesday at 4.7 million gallons. He said the city, which has about 2,400 water customers, has no plans to ration water but water conservation is encouraged throughout the year.

"This weekend, and continuing into next week, I suspect that we will exceed (Tuesday's) high," Jump said. "We have been in contact with our two highest water users - Lakeland School District and Rathdrum Parks and Recreation - about moderating their irrigation water usage during these hot periods."

The Hayden Lake Irrigation District is seeing more water use by customers. A lack of precipitation, lots of hot weather and windy conditions are drying up lawns and making more watering necessary, said Alan Miller, the district's administrator.

"It's significantly up from where it has been," Miller said. "We're running our pumps more and earlier than we have in 10 years."

The district has 2,500 connections, with approximately 85 percent being residential. It draws its water from the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley Aquifer.

The district announced earlier this year it was asking half its customers to water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while the other half are to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

The water district notifies residents of homes with excess monthly usage, and offers educational opportunities for customers to learn how to conserve usage.

That change was to address demand during peak sprinkler operating hours. When the water conservation system was announced in January, water district officials said the district didn't have the physical pumping capacity to meet demand on some peak summer mornings last year. Another well has been drilled and is expected to be online sometime this year. Adding a fourth well will increase the district's pumping capacity.

Avondale Irrigation District, with 2,700 connections, isn't doing any rationing of water.

"We don't plan on doing any rationing, unless we had some pumping facility problem," said Bob Chandler, the district's manager. "We are still promoting good conservation."

Avondale Irrigation is already pumping water from the aquifer like it's August, he said.

Chuck Waller, board chairman of the Bayview Water and Sewer District, said there has been no talk of limiting water use.

"We have unlimited supply," Waller said. "We pump out of the aquifer."