Agencies Question Deq Plan For River Department Focuses On Reducing Sediment Levels

If the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River were a patient, doctors would be puzzling over treatment.

The river, prized for its trout runs and pristine beauty, is the subject of a state proposal to limit sediment that chokes fish and degrades water quality.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is proposing a prescription that hinges on improving trout numbers by dealing with runoff from logging roads.

But two other government researchers - one with the Idaho Department of Lands and the other with the U.S. Forest Service - have publicly questioned the state’s analysis.

An average of more than 30,000 tons of sediment a year dumps into the North Fork, according to Geoff Harvey, who wrote the plan for DEQ. Harvey blames logging roads across or along North Fork tributaries.

The North Fork section of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests is known as one of the most heavily roaded National Forests in the country.

“We need about a 10,000-ton-per-year reduction, overall,” Harvey said at Wednesday’s meeting of the Panhandle Basin Advisory Group.

The government hydrologists don’t have huge concerns but want to make sure any fix is done correctly, said Rick Patten, hydrologist for the Panhandle forest.

“There’s a lot of interest among agency folks,” Patten said. “This has some profound impacts.”

The Forest Service manages more than 90 percent of the North Fork, and some restoration work already is under way.

But Patten and Lands Department forest hydrologist Douglass Fitting say the DEQ plan doesn’t factor in all possible sediment sources.

They also want the DEQ to address historic logging activity and other factors that limit native trout numbers, including water temperatures and the introduction of species such as brook trout.

“There’s a plethora of problems,” Fitting said.

Harvey promised to address the agency’s comments when they come in.

The North Fork plan - called a Total Maximum Daily Load - is required under the federal Clean Water Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must approve the state’s final version.

The state’s proposal defines success as healthy fish populations, healthy insect populations and presence of sculpin and tailed frogs.

But measuring trout numbers in the North Fork ignores the fact that introduced brook trout are thriving at the expense of native cutthroat, the two hydrologists said.

DEQ staffers responded that they are under directions from agency headquarters in Boise to consider trout as a group.

“That’s an Endangered Species Act issue, not a Clean Water Act issue,” Harvey said.

The Panhandle Basin Advisory Group - made up of environmentalists, timber, agriculture, tribal and agency representatives - decided to submit individual comments on the North Fork pollution plan, despite its role as a consensus builder.

That appeared to frustrate Ruth Watkins, the group’s chairwoman and director of the Tri-State Water Quality Council.

“So the BAG itself would not be making a comment as a group?” Watkins asked. “Getting a letter from individual BAG members is different than the BAG blessing it or not.”

A federal judge ordered the EPA to follow a strict, eight-year schedule in 1996.

States now are on tighter schedules to complete these TMDLs for water quality. Once a TMDL is approved, states have 18 months to complete an implementation plan.

“DEQ is under the gun to get this done and get it done fast,” Patten said. “I respect what they’re doing and I’m glad I’m not in their shoes.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: MORE INFORMATION Public comment

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is accepting public comment on the draft Total Maximum Daily Load for sediment in the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and metals in North Fork tributaries of Beaver, East Fork Eagle, Prichard creeks. The state will take comment until Jan. 20.

The state also is accepting comment on two other proposed pollution limits:

Pend Oreille Basin, deadline Jan. 12.

Priest River Basin, deadline Jan. 29.

Copies of the studies are available for review at DEQ’s Coeur d’Alene office, 2110 Ironwood Parkway, Suite 100, at local libraries and on DEQ’s Web site at www2.state.id.us/deq.

For more information, contact the DEQ’s Coeur d’Alene Regional Office at (208) 769-1422.