Idaho Statesman reporter Rocky Barker has a report today on why the Fourth of July holiday protest at which hobby miners ran their suction dredges illegally in the Salmon River east of Riggins to decry EPA regulations didn’t turn into anything like the Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada. Part of the reason: Idaho County Commissioner Jim Chmelik and other officials worked to make sure there was no confrontation, and the event drew no uniformed federal agents, armed militia members or national news media.

But Barker reports that event was in great contrast to another in Boise at which longtime EPA critic Rep. Mike Simpson praised the federal agency for “looking outside their rulebook” in developing the Dixie Drain Phosphorous Offset Project, a program to clean phosphorus pollution from the Boise River while also saving money for Boise residents and farmers. You can read his full report here, which is headed, “Idaho’s EPA Divide.”