As the hearing nears this afternoon on legislation to restrict the Panhandle Health District's rules regarding sewage, Terry Harris, executive director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, said, "I think procedurally this is no way to legislate complicated problems. ... I do think the Panhandle Health sewage rules need an overhaul, but probably not the overhaul that these legislators have in mind. I think they ought to be strengthened and enforced a little better."

Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, a member of the Legislative Environmental Common Sense Task Force, which held a meeting about the issue last week and brought in representatives of all the state's health districts, said, "I hate this, when legislators are legislating based on a few complaints."  Kelly said she wasn't invited to a second meeting on the same topic. "I could see why they did not want me there, because I understand the issue and I have been a staunch defender of the health districts," said Kelly, an attorney and former division administrator for Idaho DEQ.

Kelly said there's good reason for different septic rules in North Idaho's lake country and over the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. "A septic tank that may work in the middle of the desert would be obviously inappropriate in an area where you have a water table that's much closer to the surface," she said. "We need to remember that the health districts are providing the most essential service of government, which is protection of public health and safety."

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