The Water Department's goal is to provide tasty and healthful water at a reasonable price at consistent pressures and in sufficient quantities.  Originally, the City of Coeur d’ Alene obtained all of its water from Lake Coeur d’ Alene. Today, our sole source of water is the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer.

The Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is an underground river whose depth varies between 150-280 feet below the surface. The aquifer begins at Pend Oreille Lake and flows southwesterly to Spokane, WA. The aquifer’s boundaries are the foothills that define the flat prairie land between these two points. An aquifer study in 1978 estimated the flow at the Idaho/Washington border at 650,000,000 gal/day. The aquifer is a very pure source of water and minimal treatment is done to it.

There are 11 wells located in the city. We can pump more than 42 million gallons per day. Our average winter demand is about 7 million gallons per day. Our peak summer day demand will be between 35 and 38 million gallons. The number of wells that are running is determined by the demand for water. During the winter when water demand is at its lowest, running two wells will meet the water demand needs for the entire city. During the hottest summer days, all of the wells will be on. We have approximately 6 million gallons of storage. From January to December 2023 we pumped just over 5 billion gallons of water. The system has over 20,000 active accounts.

The Water Department has 26 full time employees.