State Gets Mixed Grade In Dirty Stream Study Batt Says Analysis More Accurate, Watchdogs Skeptical

The state’s initial round of testing has confirmed water quality problems in 728 stream segments covering 8 percent of Idaho’s waterways, and officials said tests over the next two years could show an increase in the streams that need a cleanup.

Gov. Phil Batt said improved technological procedures assured more accurate analysis of targeted - and nontargeted - streams in the largest water quality evaluation in the region.

“It does indicate that our state is a leader in this effort,” Batt said.

But Scott Brown of the Idaho Conservation League was not as quick to endorse the process. He was surprised that not more streams segments were identified as polluted and expressed concern that waterways where initial testing was inconclusive were left off the list.

“The focus has really been in getting streams off the list,” Brown said. “We support that where adequate data warrants it, but we question whether there is adequate data.”

Among the North Idaho streams Brown said should have been included on the list are:

Pack River, and Grouse and Gold creeks, which are tributaries to Lake Pend Oreille;

East Fork Eagle and Skookum creeks in the Coeur d’Alene River basin;

Meadow, Walton and Crooked Fork creeks in the Clearwater River basin;

and the Palouse River.

Brown said environmentalists will review the list closely and could object to the failure to include any stream segments where water quality was not conclusively confirmed or where habitat has been destroyed, flows essentially eliminated or in bull trout habitat water temperature is above the 50 degrees federal standards demand.

The state is bucking that standard, opting for a maximum temperature 54 degrees.

Still, the report issued on Thursday identified hundreds more stream segments as polluted than state officials would have ever conceded was possible in the early 1990s. The state included only 36 stream segments on the initial list that was rejected by the federal court in 1994.

The report, which is subject to public comment through June 15 before being submitted to the federal court, said that testing on the 962 stream segments eventually listed as polluted under court order found 335 of them in healthy condition.