SANDPOINT — The Idaho Lakes Commission unanimously endorsed a broad-stroke plan Friday that aims to preserve motorized boat access to Upper Priest Lake and maintain a reliable summer pool elevation on lower Priest Lake during periods of drought.

The rough outline of the plan involves removing the deteriorating breakwater at the north end of Priest Lake and replacing it with an impervious structure, in addition to dredging in the Thorofare, the 3-mile channel that leads to Upper Priest. On the lower lake, meanwhile, the gates of the Outlet Bay Dam may be increased by 3 inches to create additional reservoir capacity in drought years like the one the area endured in 2015.

That battery of projects emerged as the preferred alternative following a $300,000 water management study commissioned by the Idaho Department of Water Resources and conducted by Mott MacDonald and a subcontractor, said Bonner County Road & Bridge Director Steve Klatt, who began helping shepherd the project as the county’s parks and waterways director.

The engineer’s estimate of the suite of projects is approximately $5 million, Klatt told the commission. Improvements to the dam, which could also include automation, accounts for roughly half the cost, while the breakwater accounts for the other half of the estimate.

“Where would funding come from?” asked Commission Chairman Ford Elsaesser.

Klatt said it could be appropriated through IDWR and baked into the department’s budget, an assessment which state Rep. Sage Dixon concurred with.

The finer points of the plan, such as the composition and configuration of the breakwater, remain undetermined. Options include driving sheet piling, installing rock armoring or using a combination of rock and dredged material to create a breakwater that can be populated with vegetation.

The channel could also be realigned and shifted slightly north, which would be similar to configuration depicted in a photograph that dates back to 1935. An impervious breakwater would halt the migration of sediment transported by predominant southwest winds in the summertime.

“You’d be keeping it out of the Thorofare,” said Klatt.

Commissioners also inquired whether a clear consensus from the public had emerged on what should be done with the breakwater.

The majority of those who took part in a series of open-house meetings overwhelmingly supported keeping the channel open to powerboats. There were some who advocated for letting the breakwater deteriorate or removing and let nature take its course, which could make the Thorofare and the upper lake navigable by only paddle craft.

“Those people and that opinion is a vast minority, but they are certainly there,” Klatt said.

Idaho Water Resource Board member Dale Van Stone urged the commission to give its blessing to the projects, which would help it gain traction in the Legislature.

“We’re running maybe a little bit late on the scheduling for legislative activity for the 2018 year, but I think the window is still there,” said Van Stone, a former Bonner County commissioner.

Both Van Stone and Klatt expressed optimism that the funding could be allocated. Klatt noted that the state’s financial condition is good and the state has spent comparable sums on projects in southern Idaho.

Moreover, water resource board members unfamiliar with northern Idaho gained an appreciation for the importance of water in Bonner County, which sustains a $35 million economy. Klatt said southern Idaho lawmakers are familiar with looking at and dealing with issues of irrigation, power and domestic drinking water, but a recent site visit underscored an additional dimension of the resource.

“It was an eye-opener for the water resource board,” said Klatt. “Until that tour they never really looked at recreation as a true component of the value of water in the state of Idaho.”

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.