Budget Cuts Would Hurt Epa, Agency Says But Chenoweth Aide Says Department Can Still Do Its Job

Public health and ecology programs in Idaho would be crippled by Environmental Protection Agency budget cuts that have cleared the U.S. House of Representatives, the agency warns.

The EPA said slashing its budget by more than one-third would jeopardize efforts to help agriculture and mining comply with anti-pollution regulations.

But a spokeswoman for Republican Congressman Helen Chenoweth, who voted for the budget reductions with fellow GOP Congressman Michael Crapo, contends the EPA still would be able to do its job.

Chenoweth does not want to hand any unfunded mandates to the state, Khris Bershers said.

“It is more of a matter of you can take money out of an agency and force it to streamline without losing any of your quality,” she said.

According to an EPA analysis, Idaho communities would lose $22.1 million for sewer projects, assuring safe drinking water and preventing polluted water runoff.

That could mean raw sewage would continue pouring into local waters from outdated collection systems in some Idaho communities and a jump in the number of waters failing to meet state water quality standards, the agency predicts.

Bershers said the EPA’s water programs still would get $1.5 billion nationwide, which is $365 million less than President Clinton proposed for the budget year starting in October.

“It isn’t going to end up in dirty water,” she argued.

“It is a ridiculous assertion to be made by the EPA.”

But with less money to help industry, businesses will face a bigger burden in getting information to comply, the agency said, while the primarily federally funded monitoring programs in Idaho stand to be scaled back.

The department’s Agriculture Compliance Assistance Services Center should become operational later this year in Idaho, but it would be severely curtailed under the budget, the EPA said.

And there would be less money to help the mining industry prevent pollution, it said.

Nearly 300 projects were inspected and 36 enforcement actions taken in Idaho in the last budget year.

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and Mountain Home Air Force Base also may not get hazardous waste inspections under the proposed budget, according to the federal agency.

But Bershers said House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va, has found numerous instances in which the EPA has exercised authority beyond what Congress allows, and the House budget plan is intended to rein the agency in.