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DEQ credits pay increases for lower turnover, warns reduced monitoring risks public-health responsiveness
Summary
The Department of Environmental Quality told JFAC targeted pay raises have cut turnover from about 23% to 11% and vacancy to roughly 5%, but staff reductions have also reduced water-quality monitoring and harmful-algal-bloom surveillance, raising concerns about responsiveness and primacy.
Jess Byrne, director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, briefed the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on DEQ’s staffing, grants and program capacity.
Byrne credited last year’s targeted pay increases with cutting turnover from as high as 23% to about 11% and reducing vacant permanent classified positions to roughly 5%: "We've reduced our turnover rate down to 11%. And we've cut our vacancy rate in more than half. So, our current vacancy rate is about 5% for our permanent classified positions," he said.
Byrne said DEQ has provided more than $835,000,000 in grants and low‑interest loans over the past five years to help primarily small communities (under 10,000) upgrade drinking‑water and wastewater systems. He explained that some loan‑fund balances appear large because the state has awarded money that is now awaiting reimbursement as projects complete, and that federal capitalization grants plus repayments and state matches underlie the low‑interest loan programs.
On monitoring and public health, Byrne warned reduced seasonal staffing and fewer monitoring locations mean DEQ can do less trend analysis and is trimming resources devoted to proactive harmful‑algal‑bloom sampling. "There is always that risk, in order to have primacy for the programs that we have…we just aren't being responsive," he said. He described a complaint‑driven harmful‑algal‑bloom program that sends staff to sample when citizens report suspected blooms and works with health districts to issue public notices if toxins are confirmed.
Byrne also told the committee DEQ is exploring fee increases in negotiated rulemaking (air quality and possibly drinking water) because many fees have not been raised for years and the agency is heavily dependent on general funds for core programs; any fee changes would take time to rule‑make and implement.
