‘Quick Learner’ Will Coordinate Basin Cleanup New Appointee Labels Coeur D’Alene River Project ‘Intimidating’

Filling a newly created position, Damon Darakjy will coordinate state efforts at environmental cleanup in the Coeur d’Alene River basin.

Darakjy, 28, was appointed by Gov.

Dirk Kempthorne. He was a staff assistant to former Gov. Phil Batt who frequently worked with the state’s Indian tribes.

“Part of why the governor looked at sending me up here was my relationship with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe,” said Darakjy. “They’re an important player in basin recovery.”

What Darakjy does not have is experience in natural resource issues.

“It’s intimidating,” he said of the complex problems resulting from mining-related metals pollution in the basin. “But I’m a quick learner.”

Darakjy started his job last week. He will be paid $37,000 a year and works out of the state Division of Environmental Quality office in Coeur d’Alene. He reports directly to the governor.

Darakjy said his first priority is opening up lines of communication among the various people concerned about cleanup.

“It’s a reflection of what the governor said in his State of the State address, that collaboration rather than confrontation is best in the long run when it comes to resolving environmental problems,” Darakjy said.

In the Coeur d’Alene basin, there is friction between those who believe metals contamination is best left undisturbed and those who advocate various levels of cleanup. State and federal officials take a different approach to costly cleanup efforts; local community leaders believe too much attention is being paid to the issue, but environmentalists say too little is being done.

Jim Yost of the governor’s office will continue to serve on the 15-member Coeur d’Alene River Basin Commission. Darakjy will attend the commission’s next monthly meeting slated for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Associated Logging Contractors Association building on U.S. Highway 95.

Darakjy (pronounced Da-rach-ee) is a political science graduate of the University of Idaho. His parents, Robert and Andrea Darakjy, live in Coeur d’Alene, and his wife, Jennifer, is a native of the city.