Hardesty: DEQ reviewed amendments

Idaho DEQ Director Toni Hardesty, questioned by the House Environment Committee about the department’s view of proposed amendments to HB 667, Hardesty said the bill’s sponsor and the lobbyist for the state’s health district ran the amendments by the department and made several changes the department requested. One matches the bill up to another passed earlier this session, at the request of DEQ, to move rules review for health district rules from the Board of Health & Welfare to the Board of Environmental Quality. That essentially should have been changed long ago when the DEQ was moved out of Health & Welfare to make it a separate department instead of just a division within DEQ, the bill’s backers said.