On the heels of its assumption of water quality permitting authority, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has released its 2022 Idaho Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program (IPDES) Permit Issuance Plan.
The plan, which identifies permits being worked on for the next two years, includes a score that prioritizes the facilities with pending permit applications and/or administratively continued permits under the IPDES Bureau for action. The scores are based on the type of facility applying for a permit, length of time the facility has been waiting to be issued its first permit, length of time before an existing permit expires, length of time the permit has been administratively continued, receiving water beneficial use status, facility compliance history, facility classification as a major or minor discharger, and number of drinking water system intakes within 500 feet downstream of the facility’s discharge point.
Under a Memorandum of Agreement between DEQ and U.S. EPA, Idaho DEQ began in 2018 to assume clean water delegation in phases. Biosolids implementation, stormwater, and federal facility permits for discharges into waters of the United States in Idaho (other than on tribal land) are now issued by DEQ.
