Last week, Avista reduced the amount of water passing through the Post Falls Dam into the Spokane River in an effort to maintain water levels in Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The reduction to the lowest flow requirement of 500 cubic feet per second happens nearly every year, Avista spokesman Jared Webley said.

Per the dam license, renewed in 2009, the volume cut is required if the lake water level falls to around 3 inches below average.

Webley said the decreased water allowed through the dam will not have an impact on the electricity it generates.

Water in the Inland northwest has to be divvied up between a number of different users, said Dan McCracken, the regional administrator for Idaho’s environmental quality department.

“If we didn’t decrease the flows in the river downstream of Post Falls

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