State watchdog safeguards its image first
Marty Trillhaase
May 26, 2010
Lewiston Morning Tribune
Citing deep budget cuts, Idaho's environmental watchdog ceases to watch whether much of the state's water is getting dirtier or cleaner.
In response, the state's largest, oldest conservation group rebukes the budget cuts in a newspaper column.
And how does the state agency respond?
By snubbing the conservation group.
To save about $200,000, Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality - which like all of Idaho state government has suffered through two withering years of holdbacks and shrinking budgets - has suspended much but not all of its program to track baseline levels of pollution in the state's rivers and lakes. If contamination levels spiked, the state could have looked for a source.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, not Idaho, enforces the Clean Water Act. But the federal agency delegates responsibility to the state. If Idaho is no longer watching over its waters, the feds may step back in.
"That can't go on forever," EPA Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran told the Idaho Statesman's Rocky Barker.
In the April 24 Statesman, the Idaho Conservation League's Sara Cohn wrote: "This is a reckless move that puts far more at risk than it saves. . . . The decision to stop water quality monitoring may be penny wise, but it is pound foolish. Keeping water clean is cheaper and easier than to clean up the water once it is polluted. Join us in urging the state not to gamble on our future and to restore full support for water quality monitoring."
Next came a call from DEQ. One of its top officials, either Director Toni Hardesty or deputy Director Curt Fransen, was set to deliver a keynote address at ICL's annual Wild Idaho conference Saturday at Redfish Lake near Stanley.
On the heels of the newspaper column, DEQ canceled the appearance. The agency says Cohn's piece was inaccurate and overly critical.
You'd think this is the first time DEQ has butted heads with the conservation community. It's not. ICL is in court suing the EPA - as a surrogate for the state - for not protecting pristine waterways from degradation. On the other hand, the state and ICL partnered on research that pinpointed Nevada gold mines as the source of airborne mercury that was winding up in southern Idaho lakes. At times, the two are respectful adversaries, at others collaborators.
So how is it that a mere op-ed triggered such a response? ICL members say they have a good relationship with Hardesty, so some of them questioned whether her agency was following the direction of Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter's office. Hardesty answers to the governor and may have been following orders.
DEQ denies that, however.
Whatever the reason, it seems odd that DEQ would choose not to talk to a core part of its constituency. The agency can no more shut out conservationists than Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna can snub the Idaho Education Association because the teachers union publicly criticized unprecedented state cuts in the public school budget.
It's better to talk - even if the conversation occasionally veers toward confrontation. Ask Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director Virgil Moore. ICL opposed Fish and Game's plan to helicopter into wilderness areas to monitor wolves. Moore showed up Sunday to defend his department.
Ask Congressmen Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Walt Minnick, D-Idaho. They also appeared at Sunday's conference - and while there's agreement among the delegation and ICL about a pending bill to create a wilderness designation for the Boulder-White Clouds range in central Idaho, there also are issues of contention.
Any agency this thin-skinned has its priorities mixed up. Otter's DEQ should care less about polishing its image with the public and more about keeping an eye on water pollution.
Originally posted at http://www.lmtribune.com/story/opinion/510073/
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