DEQ urges targeted pay increases to stem turnover, cites permit delays and loan/fund activity

During the same March budget session, the committee heard testimony from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about staffing shortages, permitting delays and several dedicated funds the agency manages.

Jess Byrne, director of DEQ, identified turnover and vacancies as the principal drivers of recent permitting delays and asked for targeted compensation enhancements to improve recruitment and retention. Byrne said DEQ's permitting timelines have lengthened in some programs — citing air permits as an example — and urged that targeted pay adjustments, combined with the cost‑of‑employment compensation measures the committee has already considered, would improve the agency's ability to issue permits.

Why it matters: permitting delays can slow private construction and industrial projects because applicants often cannot build until air or wastewater discharge permits are issued. Committee members pressed DEQ for details on where targeted increases would be applied and how the agency would measure improvements.

Staffing and permitting: Byrne and her leadership team told the committee that technical permitting positions have experienced high vacancy and turnover rates. Byrne said the agency's analysis showed many departing employees reported accepting positions that paid roughly 20% more. She described program‑specific vacancy episodes: "In our air permitting program, 50% of the positions have been vacant in the last year. Our surface water individual permit program, 60% of those positions have been vacant in the last year." Byrne also described the training timeline for technical staff and that average tenure for new hires has been about 2.8 years, which limits return on training investments.

Proposed compensation changes: DEQ proposed raising minimum hiring comp ratios for entry level positions to 83% and higher minimums (about 86%) for particularly difficult‑to‑fill roles, and accompanying market adjustments for incumbent staff to reduce compression. Byrne said the proposal complements the committee's earlier CEC action and the governor's recommended enhancements.

Funds, loans and remediation: Jessup and Byrne reviewed DEQ fund activity and noted ARPA and other federal inflows increased trustee and benefit payments in recent fiscal years. Byrne described the water pollution control (wastewater) loan program and explained a statutory transfer of $4,800,000 into that account meant to assure state matching capacity for federal capitalization grants. Byrne said some of the account balance has been used for other state obligations and noted the agency requests annual transfers ($1,500,000 in testimony) from that account to a basin remediation account to build a $45,000,000 reserve for the Bunker Hill Superfund site in northern Idaho.

On the waste tire fund question, Jessup explained a deficiency fund can end the year negative and that the 2022 negative balance was repaid in a later session; DEQ only uses the deficiency warrant process when cleanup expenses create a temporary negative balance.

Other federal funding and timing: DEQ staff noted additional federal funding sources, including money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for wastewater and oversight for the Idaho National Laboratory, and said engineering, design and stakeholder coordination often delay project expenditures even when funds are appropriated.

What was not decided: committee members did not vote on DEQ's requested targeted pay enhancements during the hearing; they asked Byrne to provide detailed plans showing which positions and how pay adjustments would be applied.

Closing: Byrne thanked staff and reiterated that DEQ must stabilize staffing to meet service expectations: "Quality workers do. Making this investment in DEQ is an investment in Idaho," she said, while asking the committee to consider the proposed targeted increases as a step toward stabilizing permitting timelines.