DEQ warns permit delays and staff turnover are slowing projects; proposes targeted pay increases and fund transfers for remediation and loans

At the same Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hearing, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director Jess Byrne briefed legislators on staffing shortages, permit backlogs and fund activity, and described a targeted pay plan the agency says is necessary to stabilize permitting timelines.

Janet Jessup, Legislative Services budget analyst, introduced the DEQ segment and reviewed the agency’s consolidated fund analysis, noting that ARPA state fiscal recovery money and other federal funds had altered recent expenditure patterns. Jas s Byrne and DEQ staff answered questions from committee members on permit timelines, turnover, loan programs, and remediation funds.

Byrne said DEQ is allocated 385 full-time positions and had roughly 37 vacancies at the time of budget submission (about a 9.7% vacancy rate). The agency reported that it expended 85% of its personnel budget in 2024 and attributed slower permit processing to turnover in technical permit-writing positions. Byrne told the committee that some permit-writing programs experienced very high vacancy rates: about 50% vacancy in parts of the air-permitting program and roughly 60% vacancy in the surface-water individual permit program during the last year. She said the average tenure of new staff who leave DEQ is about 2.8 years, which lengthens the time needed to fully train replacements.

DEQ provided examples of the operational impact. Byrne said average time to issue an air-quality permit rose from about 89.1 days in February (recent historic level) to roughly 160 days in the later period cited. She told legislators the agency triages permitting work and prioritizes permits that would otherwise hold up economic activity, but acknowledged delays can slow construction and project starts for regulated entities.

To address recruitment and retention, Byrne described a governor-recommended package of targeted pay increases and noted that the committee previously voted on a separate “CEC” adjustment (committee staff described that as a compensation-related change). The targeted proposal would raise minimum hiring comp ratios for many positions (from historically low levels) and give selected, hard-to-fill classes higher minimums; the package also includes some internal equity adjustments for current employees. Byrne told the committee this combination, together with the previously approved CEC, would make DEQ more competitive against private, local and federal employers for specialized technical staff.

Committee members asked for more details. Representative Annemarie requested a position-level breakdown of how targeted increases would be applied; Byrne agreed to provide follow-up materials through legislative staff. Representative Petzke noted exit interviews showing roughly two-thirds of departing employees said their new positions paid 20% or more above DEQ. Byrne said the proposed changes are intended to make the agency competitive enough to retain and train staff rather than repeatedly replace them.

On funding and program specifics, Byrne described major dedicated accounts and recent transfers. The state’s water-pollution-control account receives a statutorily-directed transfer of $4.8 million; that account has been used to hold general-fund appropriations for wastewater and drinking-water projects awarded in prior cycles, producing a temporarily large balance that the agency is now deploying to projects. Byrne said the agency is requesting a $1.5 million transfer from that account to the Bunker Hill basin remediation account, with an eventual target balance in the remediation account of about $45 million to cover long-term operation and maintenance obligations at the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

Jessup and Byrne explained that some smaller dedicated accounts operate as deficiency funds (allowed to go negative) and are later repaid through legislative action when cleanup costs are incurred, citing the Waste Tire Deficiency Fund as an example of a fund that had been negative in 2022 and later repaired.

Committee members asked whether regulation reductions could ease workload. Byrne said DEQ continuously reviews regulations for efficiencies through processes such as a 0-based regulatory review and the Speed Council interagency work; she said some programs (she cited vehicle emissions testing historically) have been evaluated and scaled back when benefits no longer justified costs to the public.

Byrne closed by stressing the agency’s operational role: permitting and enforcement work supports economic development and protects state primacy over federal programs. She asked the committee to view targeted compensation adjustments as an investment in retaining the specialized staff who produce permits and manage compliance rather than as an administrative cost.

The committee requested additional material on the pay proposal, permitting metrics and specific fund balances and transfers; Jessup said staff would provide follow-up documents in the committee SharePoint.