Water Advisory Board Told To Butt Out Of Idaho

George LaValley’s crusade to halt an industrial development over the Rathdrum aquifer has sparked an internal ruckus across the state line.

Spokane County commissioners reprimanded their own water quality advisory panel for appearing to side with LaValley, a Kootenai County planning commissioner, in a dispute with his elected bosses.

LaValley took Kootenai County commissioners to court last month because they had approved a machine shop project on 150 acres near the Coeur d’Alene airport. Commissioners did not make the developer hook up to a sewage treatment plant. LaValley claims the development could lead to contamination of the aquifer.

The 10-year planning veteran has promised to “rabble-rouse and rattle the bushes” to gain support for his fight.

April 20, he made a presentation before Spokane County’s citizen water board, an advisory group. The board sympathized and told LaValley it would seek help from Spokane commissioners, according to meeting minutes.

That earned them a slap from commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris.

LaValley was charging the Idaho commissioners with misconduct, Hasson and Harris said in a letter to the board. His presentation was “in poor taste” and the panel’s concurrence with his position “compliments those bad manners.”

“The commissioners, Hasson in particular, are sensitive to having an advisory board telling them what they should or should not be doing,” said Dennis Scott, Spokane County public works director. “He doesn’t like any appointed board telling other elected officials they are out of line.”

Embattled Kootenai County commissioners took the Harris and Hasson letter as a show of support. They sent a return memo detailing “what really went on” when they approved the project and complained of “armchair quarterbacking” by LaValley and others.