North Kootenai Water District automatic metering infrastructure project
The North Kootenai Water District (NKWD) is a non-profit organization providing drinking water to over 11,300 people across 200 square miles through 15 public water systems. The district primarily sources its water from 26 wells tapping the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, with a small portion drawn from Hayden Lake and Coeur d’Alene Lake. To improve water supply reliability and promote conservation, NKWD is replacing its manual and radio-read meters with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The new AMI meters feature cellular endpoints for real-time data transmission and include leak detection technology. Following a successful pilot project, which showed a 12% reduction in water usage, the district projects annual savings of 392.8 acre-feet, or 128 million gallons of water.
Suzanne Scheidt joined the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) in the Coeur d’Alene Regional Office after college, where she spent 24 years working with over 300 public drinking water systems across the Idaho Panhandle. She retired in 2020 as a senior analyst and then became the chief operating officer at North Kootenai Water District (NKWD). Suzanne also serves as the water district representative on Kootenai County’s Aquifer Protection District Advisory Board and as the president of the Idaho Washington Aquifer Collaborative. She holds a Treatment 2 operator license in Idaho.