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SJM111.....................................................by STATE AFFAIRS
COEUR D'ALENE BASIN - Stating findings of the Legislature and requesting
support of the efforts of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality
asserting and maintaining their leadership role in designing and
implementing a solution to the cleanup in the Coeur d'Alene Basin.
03/29 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing
03/30 Rpt prt - to 10th Ord
03/31 10th ord - ADOPTED - voice vote
Title apvd - to House
04/03 House intro - 1st rdg - to 2nd rdg
04/04 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg
Rls susp - ADOPTED - voice vote - to Senate
04/04 To enrol - rpt enrol - Pres signed
04/05 Sp signed
04/06 To Secretary of State
SJM111
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ||||
Fifty-fifth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2000
IN THE SENATE
SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 111
BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
1 A JOINT MEMORIAL
2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES
3 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-
4 TIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE CONGRESSIONAL
5 DELEGATION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF IDAHO IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED
6 STATES.
7 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
8 State of Idaho assembled in the Second Regular Session of the Fifty-fifth
9 Idaho Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that:
10 WHEREAS, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues
11 to engage in unilateral actions regarding efforts to expand the existing
12 twenty-one square mile Superfund site to include the entire 1,500 square mile
13 Coeur d'Alene River Basin; and
14 WHEREAS, the EPA staff members working on Coeur d'Alene Basin issues con-
15 tinue to disregard the views of Idaho's citizens and elected officials; and
16 WHEREAS, the EPA has already spent many millions of dollars in the Coeur
17 d'Alene Basin outside the existing Superfund site without any meaningful
18 cleanup to date; and
19 WHEREAS, the EPA has undertaken the steps to complete a Remedial
20 Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) even though the basin is not listed on
21 the national priorities list; and
22 WHEREAS, the state of Idaho has been previously granted the leadership
23 role in the Human Health Risk Assessment portion of the RI/FS; and
24 WHEREAS, the EPA efforts to bifurcate the RI/FS process appear detrimental
25 to current settlement discussions among all of the parties; and
26 WHEREAS, the state of Idaho, the Governor and the Director of the Depart-
27 ment of Environmental Quality, have taken the leadership role in development
28 of a plan to remediate the problems in the basin and have actively gained sup-
29 port of local units of government, local citizens, tribal members and respon-
30 sible parties.
31 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the Second Regular Ses-
32 sion of the Fifty-fifth Idaho Legislature, the Senate and the House of Repre-
33 sentatives concurring therein, that we strongly support efforts by the Idaho
34 Department of Environmental Quality to assert and maintain the leadership role
35 in designing and implementing a solution to the multiple dilemmas in the Coeur
36 d'Alene Basin.
37 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we request the Environmental Protection Agency
38 to use its authority to support efforts by the Idaho Department of Environmen-
39 tal Quality to resolve this problem and to refrain from any strategic delays,
40 unilateral decisions or media manipulation.
41 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we request a letter be sent from the Adminis-
42 trator of the Environmental Protection Agency to the Region 10 office of the
43 EPA instructing the region to fully support and cooperate with the Governor of
44 the State of Idaho and the Director of the Idaho Department of Environmental
2
1 Quality in reaching a settlement in these matters.
2 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate be, and she is
3 hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to the Pres-
4 ident of the United States, to the Administrator of the United States Environ-
5 mental Protection Agency, to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of
6 the House of Representatives of Congress, and the congressional delegation
7 representing the State of Idaho in the Congress of the United States.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
RS10333C1
The purpose of the Memorial is to send a message from the Idaho Legislature to the President, to
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to Congress, relating to
disapproval of recent unilateral actions by EPA in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin. These actions
may adversely affect on-going settlement negotiations between the State of Idaho, affected
parties, and EPA.
Continued unilateral actions by EPA almost certainly would result in Superfund designation of
the
entire basin.
Additionally, this memorial encourages the EPA to support a settlement approach, and to
recognize that the State of Idaho is in the leadership role in human health risk assessment in the
basin.
FISCAL NOTE
None.
CONTACT: Senator Jack Riggs 332-1307
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/ FISCAL NOTE
SJM 11