City of Pocatello promotes awareness of water issues

Pocatello’s water department is teaching healthy water habits and showing how the city gets its drinking water.

The Portneuf Valley Aquifer is Pocatello and Chubbuck’s only source for drinking water. It lies below the Portneuf River. According to the water department, the aquifer is in good shape.

“We’re very lucky in the city of Pocatello, we have a very good supply of drinking water from the Portneuf aquifer,” said Levi Lusk, engineering technician with the water department.

Currently, the city has 23 wells drawing water from the aquifer. From there it’s moved into their booster station and pipe systems. Then finally, into people’s homes.

Lusk said the aquifer’s hard water worries people because of its mineral content. He asserts it poses no threat, except maybe to your faucets and fixtures if the water builds up.

“The thing that people need to understand is it’s not harmful, it doesn’t hurt you,” Lusk said. “It’s just something that we have and that we deal with.”

To coincide with National Drinking Water Week, the water department opens its doors to the public. All third-graders from school District 25 and second-graders from American Falls attend to learn about the aquifer and water-wise habits.

With the help from other city department, the kids got tips in properly conserving water. They also learned how to keep storm water clean, so the water won’t contaminate the river or aquifer.

Although the lessons are aimed at kids, Lusk said everybody needs to apply them to their habits to have healthy drinking water.

“It’s something we always have to be conscientious about and we definitely don’t want to take it for granted,” he said. “If we do start being wasteful and not doing our best to conserve water, we’ll end up just like California and the drought they’re having.”

The open house continues until Thursday. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and then 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.