From the Idaho Panhandle

Water Monitoring Benefits Idaho Business

By Cate Huisman, 11-20-10

	Idaho Conservation League's North Idaho Associate Susan Drumheller explains water quality issues at Monarch Mountain Coffee House.

The Idaho Conservation League held a kaffeeklatsch yesterday morning at Monarch Mountain Coffee House in Sandpoint to encourage local sippers to support water monitoring in the state.

According to ICL, water monitoring costs less than 30 cents per person per year, but it represents one of many cuts that have been made to the state budget in these cost-conscious times. Restoring the funding now would attract matching federal funding, and more important, it would enable us to keep collecting data that would identify problems early, so they can be addressed before they become big and expensive.

ICL North Idaho Associate Susan Drumheller and others staffed a table at one end of the coffee house, pumping visitors with a free cup of coffee if they put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to let Governor Otter know what they thought about the issue. The table was pretty busy by late morning, as a steady stream of potential coffee quaffers engaged the ICL folks in questions and conversation.

In addition to the obvious benefits of the kaffeklatsch for local lakes and rivers, it was nice to see that it also helped to fill the recently enlarged coffee house. Long a popular hangout, Monarch seemed to lose its cachet a few years ago when the longtime owners sold out and left for parts unknown. New owners Kim Bond and her son Poppy have tried to restore some of its past glory, and have expanded into what used to be a mailing services space next door. Now there’s room for some comfortable stuffed chairs and a small fireplace that warmed the backs of the ICLers as they explained their water quality concerns to each new arrival.

It would be great to see similar such collaborations in the future. It’s pretty clear that a that a healthy natural environment benefits local business, in more ways than one.

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