Bannock County approves small-scale change to erosion-control ordinance to comply with MS4 permit

The Bannock County Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday approved an amendment to the county—s sediment and erosion control ordinance that changes the construction disturbance trigger from one acre to 5,000 square feet.

Tristan Borkwin, assistant planning director, said the change is needed "to continue to comply with our current MS4 permit" and noted the ordinance "applies only to construction activities within the Bannock County urbanized area," specifically around Chubbuck and Pocatello. "The only change that we had that acre just needs to be changed to 5,000 square feet," Borkwin said.

The amendment was considered at a scheduled public hearing that the commission opened and closed during the meeting. Commissioners made a motion to approve the change and passed the amendment by voice vote; the meeting record shows the motion carried with commissioners answering "aye." The hearing included written testimony from Mike Satel, which was entered into the record.

During public comment some residents raised related local concerns about gravel- and aggregate-related operations and possible sediment entering nearby wetlands. Douglas Zirikoff said residents had observed material being "pushed gravel into the pond down below, which is in actuality, a man produced erosion into the water." Larry Labbe, who said he visited the site, told commissioners he discussed the work with a state official who told him the operator had been pushing gravel into a wetland and that "that's against the law." Borkwin responded that if activity is tied to an existing conditional-use permit, county code enforcement can inspect and check compliance with permit conditions: "we can always send our code enforcement officer out to take a look and just make sure they're complying with the conditions of their permit," he said.

The ordinance change is limited in scope: it updates a numeric threshold and does not expand the areas covered beyond the county—s defined urbanized area. Commissioners and staff said they had not received negative public comments about the specific change before the hearing.

The approved ordinance is intended to keep the county in conformance with the federal Clean Water Act framework administered through the county—s MS4 permit and the county—s joint permit partners, which staff identified as the Idaho Transportation Department, the City of Chubbuck, the City of Pocatello and Idaho State University.

No vote roll call or numerical tally was recorded in the transcript; the action was passed by voice vote and announced by the chair as approved.