After over two decades of working on an answer to this question, communities and governments on the Rathdrum Prairie have developed a template which other communities seeking similar solutions could apply.

That template was codified in state law, under the Ground Water Quality Rule as a Sensitive Resource petition.

It provides for any entity with ownership or other interest in a ground water resource to recategorize an aquifer from its default category of a General Resource, to be able to impose more stringent management standards which are locally-crafted for the site-specific conditions of that aquifer.

The intent of this process is to vest greater local control over the resource, not to divest control to state or federal entities. A Sensitive Resource petition is site-specific, locally-drafted, and feasible within local economic constraints and for the beneficial uses intended to be protected.