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| Much of the upper Coeur d’Alene Basin is a Superfund site, contaminated by a century’s worth of mining. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has issued plan to expand Superfund cleanup activity in 300 square miles of the upper basin. Earlier S... |
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| On August 9, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) finalized regulations limiting the release of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from cement plants. The move will cut mercury, fine particle pollution, hydrochloric acid, and total h... |
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| Elk City Water and Sewer Association in Elk City, Idaho has agreed to pay a $3,700 penalty for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act at its wastewater treatment plant. From February 2005 through September 2007, the wastewater treatment plant a... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is conducting a hazardous waste assessment and investigation near Rexburg, Idaho. Members of the Madison County Planning and Zoning Commission, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, and the Madison Fire Depa... |
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| The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) has identified E. coli bacteria levels at the Lucky Peak Reservoir in excess of state water quality standards. The excess levels of E. coli may pose a threat to public health and, if ingested, can caus... |
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| Tyler Amon has been selected as the new Special Agent-in-Charge for Region 10 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and will supervise all environmental crimes investigations throughout Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Mr. Amon joined ... |
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| On June 15, 2010, the Wood Creek Livestock Company was issued an EPA Compliance Order for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The alleged violations occurred at the Wood Creek Feedlot near Grand View, Idaho, which is close to the Snake Rive... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is concerned that a dam built by Monsanto Co. (“Monsanto”) earlier this year to trap phosphate mine runoff has halted millions of gallons of water in Sheep Creek that would otherwise help fill the Blackfoot... |
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| On June 15, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a Unilateral Administrative Order (the “Order”) requiring FMC Corporation (“FMC”) to better protect on-site personnel and the environment from exposure to phosphine, a hazardous gas... |
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| On June 11, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) ordered the Simplot Cattle Feeding Company (“Simplot”) to halt discharges from its feedlot complex near Grand View, Idaho. Simplot confines between 30,000 and 65,000 cattle year-round at t... |
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| On July 29, 2010, a federal panel of judges will meet in Boise, Idaho to decide where and how to consolidate the many lawsuits in the BP environmental spill. The panel, known as the Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, will decide which single judge or smal... |
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| On May 12, 2010, a federal district judge in Idaho awarded nearly $17 million to farmers for damage to crops in southern Idaho by the DuPont herbicide Oust that had drifted from federal land. Judge Lynn Winmill of the U.S. District Court for the District ... |
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| In 2006, the Idaho Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality filed a civil suit against Cory & Vicki King and Chris Drakos and their business operations, including the Double C Farms, alleging a range of violations of laws gove... |
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| The Clean Water Act requires each State to protect the existing uses of its waters and to protect its high-quality waters from degradation that, upon public review, is not necessary and important. Federal law requires each State to have such an antidegrad... |
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| On April 20, 2010, the Associated Press identified two restaurants in Idaho as the only restaurants in the continental United States doing on-site worm composting, known as vermiculture. Red Feather Lounge and Bittercreek Ale House in downtown Boise feed ... |
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| On April 16, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released a proposed rule which would impose heightened air-pollution controls on the gold-mining industry. In particular, gold processors would be required to reduce emissions of mercury ... |
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| The Kinross DeLamar Mining Company will pay a $35,000 fine for failing to implement adequate stormwater controls at its DeLamar Mine in southwest Idaho. In 2009, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) inspectors observed a muddy discharge of water i... |
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| A Pocatello oil storage and distribution facility has agreed to pay a $38,500 penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act requirements related to the prevention of oil spills. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) alleged that Automotive &... |
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| On March 5, 2010, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (“Fish & Wildlife”) concluded that the greater sage grouse warranted listing as an “endangered” species under the Endangered Species Act. Fish & Wildlife, however, decided to list the sage gro... |
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| On February 18, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) granted re-certification and a limited waiver of FERC’s operating and efficiency standards to a cogeneration facility in Glenns Ferry, Idaho that reportedly had not had a steam host s... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has settled with developers accused of violating the Clean Water Act at construction sites in northern Idaho. Inspectors discovered as part of routine inspections in the Sandpoint area that some developers had fail... |
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| On January 14, 2010, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (“Fish & Wildlife”) proposed a large expansion of areas to be deemed critical habitat for the bull trout. See 75 Fed. Reg. 2270 (Jan. 14, 2010). Bull trout, a threatened species under the Endan... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has modified the cleanup plan for a phosphorus-processing plant owned and operated by the J. R. Simplot Company (“Simplot”) on the Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund site. The change is expected to reduce the amount o... |
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| On December 15, 2009, a federal judge sentenced an Idaho feedlot manager to three years of probation and a fine of $5,500 for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. Cory King, a manager at Double C Farms near Burley, Idaho was convicted of four counts of ... |
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| On November 23, 2009, a federal judge in Boise, Idaho ruled that federal prosecutors had failed to prove allegations that a feedlot manager in southern Idaho had discharged fluids into an aquifer that were contaminated with manure and bacteria. Cory King,... |
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| On January 12, 2010, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) official announced that the agency expects to propose in June 1010 a draft general permit for stormwater discharges from construction sites, incorporating requirements in new effluent li... |
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| On January 13, 2010, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the selection of Dennis J. McLerran to be EPA’s Regional Administrator for Region 10. This region encompasses Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and ... |
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| The City of St. Maries, Idaho has agreed to pay a $9,220 penalty and to spend an estimated $113,550 in additional infrastructure to settle a case for violations of emergency prevention requirements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the... |
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| On January 11, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of an Idaho real estate developer convicted under the Clean Water Act of illegal dredging. The developer, Charles Lynn Moses of Driggs, Idaho, had asserted in his petition to ... |
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| The first results from air toxics monitoring at Lapwai High School on the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho are now available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). EPA’s national Schools Air Toxics Initiative monitors 6... |
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| A voluntary agreement has been reached on a revised air quality permit that incorporates limits on carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions from a proposed clean-coal gasification fertilizer production facility in Power County. This is the first air quality permi... |
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| On December 7, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced that greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases: carbon d... |
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| On November 30, Charles Lynn Moses filed a writ of habeas corpus with the U.S. Supreme Court asserting that his conviction under the Clean Water Act was illegal because the federal government lacked jurisdiction. Mr. Moses, a real estate developer in Drig... |
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| The City of Kendrick, Idaho has reached a $3,500 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) for alleged Clean Water Act violations at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. EPA alleges that from April 2005 through March 2009, the pla... |
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| McNabb Grain, Inc. has agreed to pay $15,462 for several violations of the Federal Air Rules for Indian Reservations under the Clean Air Act. McNabb Grain operates a grain elevator on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation near Pocatello, Idaho. The violations ... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has fined the J.R. Simplot Co. $28,080 for failing to register two of its pesticide facilities. The company is accused of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”). A facili... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has fined Wilbur-Ellis Co., a California-based national distributor of agricultural products, $99,600 for 21 alleged violations of federal pesticide law. The case was the result of investigation... |
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| Under a proposed consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho on November 9, 2009, a former manufacturer of creosote-treated utility poles and the City of St. Maries agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA... |
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| On November 10, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) said it is removing three provisions from its December 2008 revisions to the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (“SPCC”) regulations to address a number of issues raised by ... |
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| On November 6, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would expand the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's authority to add security coverage for drinking water and wastewater treatment plants and to regulate chemical facilitie... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has filed a complaint for $125,000 in penalties against three developers for violations of the Clean Water Act at a construction site near Smiths Ferry, Idaho. EPA alleges that Sal Gallucci, JJS Southwest ... |
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| The East Shoshone County Water District (the “District”) has settled a complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the District’s failure to comply with a Safe Drinking Water Act compliance order issued in March 2000. The proposed conse... |
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| On October 20, 2009, the U.S. Senate approved legislation to extend by one year the authority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to regulate chemical facilities. The provision was contained in the conference report for the 2010 Homeland Security... |
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| On September 30, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) set out a new process for negotiations with Potentially Responsible Parties (“PRPs”) in remedial design and remedial action (“RD/RA”) settlements. The negotiation process has reporte... |
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| On October 14, 2009, a House subcommittee approved two bills intended to improve security at chemical plants and public drinking water systems from acts of terrorism. The U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment approved the Drinking Water System... |
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| On October 15, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) added the Lower Boise River and Hem Creek to the State of Idaho’s list of impaired waters. In accordance with Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act, states must identify all po... |
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| On October 15, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued the Idaho Transportation Department (“ITD”) and its contractor, Parsons RCI, Inc. (“Parsons”), a complaint seeking $65,000 in penalties for numerous storm water violations near ... |
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| On October 7, 2009, the Idaho Board of Environmental Quality adopted a rule to expand vehicle emissions testing in the greater Boise area. The rule is anticipation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency holding that the air-shed in the greater Boise... |
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| On October 8, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated part of Franklin County, Idaho as being in nonattainment for fine particle air pollution known as PM2.5. The community will need to develop plans for reducing pollution by 20... |
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| On September 30, 2009, the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a recovery plan for threatened mid-Columbia River steelhead trout, which includes Idaho steelhead populations. The plan could cost $1 billion over ... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has fined a Boise asbestos abatement and demolition contractor $36,000 for not handling asbestos properly while renovating a building. In October 2008, EPA inspected one of Precision Demolition and Abateme... |
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| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessed a $50,000 penalty against the Sterling Mining Co. for violating the terms of its effluent-discharge permit at the Sunshine Mine and Mill in the Silver Valley region of north Idaho. The violations included... |
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| The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has agreed to pay $14,000 in fines to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to settle alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act at the Grace Fish Hatchery near Pocatello, Idaho. In December 2007, S... |
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| On September 21, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued the second most important climate-change decision ever issued by a U.S. court (after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA). The decision in Connecticut v.... |
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| A federal judge has ordered that grizzly bears in eastern Idaho be re-listed under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Donald Malloy of the District of Montana reversed a 2007 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Fish & Wildli... |
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| On September 11, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced restrictions on the use of three pesticides in Washington, California, Oregon, and Idaho to protect endangered and threatened salmon. The use of chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathi... |
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| Several new class-action lawsuits have been filed in the last few months alleging that U.S. homeowners were adversely affected by toxic components in certain drywall manufactured in China and used during the housing boom. Various U.S. distributors and co... |
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| A Mountain Home food-production company has agreed to pay over $18,000 for failing to report the storage of ammonia and over $77,000 to replace five refrigerant pumps at its facility. Nonpareil Corporation produces a baked potato casserole that is frozen... |
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| On June 24, 2009, a federal jury in Boise found the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) and E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. (“DuPont”) negligent in the damage of thousands of acres of farmland in southern Idaho. The BLM had used DuPont’s herbicide Oust... |
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| A federal district judge in Washington has held that Indian tribes cannot be liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) because they are not listed in the statute’s definition of covered “persons.” Th... |
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered an Idaho landowner to remove fill material and to restore wetlands and stream channels on his property in Bonner County. The landowner allegedly placed rock and other fill material into four acres of ... |
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| On June 22, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mining waste discharged into a lake is regulated under the Clean Water Act as fill material, not as a pollutant. The effect is that mining slurry discharges into navigable waters of the United States fa... |
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| On June 15, 2009, the governors of the Western Governors Association, including Idaho Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter, released a joint report with the Obama administration aimed at promoting renewable energy. The group approved the “Western Renewable Energ... |
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| On June 12, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will extend the date by which petroleum bulk plant owners and operators must comply with certain Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (“SPCC”) regulations. The old comp... |
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| On June 4, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit lifted the stay it had imposed in late May that prevented further preparatory expansion work at the J.R. Simplot Co.’s Smoky Canyon phosphate mine. On June 2, 2009, the company had said tha... |
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| The developer of the Esparanza Subdivision in Lewiston, Idaho has agreed to pay a $5,450 fine for alleged stormwater violations brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The Lewiston site, which was being cleared and excavated to prepar... |
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An Idaho scrap yard operator will pay $32,882 to settle alleged oil disposal and clean-up violations. In 2006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors found several violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) at the elev... |
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| On May 4, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling whose effects on hazardous waste environmental law will be felt for a long time. The ruling reduced the liability of manufacturers and suppliers for the costs of cleaning up hazardous waste from thei... |
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| In February 2003, more than 200 Idaho farmers sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. (“DuPont”) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho saying that a DuPont herbicide, Oust, drifted from federal land where... |
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| On April 16, 2009, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) issued a report addressing the challenges to the reliability of the U.S. electrical grid posed by increasing renewable generation, such as from wind and solar. Since June 200... |
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| Trident Seafoods Corporation (“Trident”) has settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and agreed to pay over $61,000 in penalties for violating the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (“EPCRA”) because it failed to rep... |
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| Asplundh Tree Expert Company (“Asplundh”) has agreed to pay to settle eight alleged violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”) for operations on the Nez Perce Reservation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA... |
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| On April 17, 2009, Governor Otter signed S. 1015, a bill which permits State officials to send surplus wolves to other States. The Idaho wolf population has been growing, and Idaho officials had been concerned about the loss of livestock and deer from th... |
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| On April 7, 2009, the Idaho Senate passed a bill to increase the current fee for purchasing a lead-acid battery from five dollars to ten dollars. The Idaho House had previously passed the bill, H. 170, on March 9, 2009. The bill imposes the obligation on ... |
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