Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d'Alene, introduced a resolution this morning in the Senate State Affairs Committee to launch an interim study committee to look at how Idaho can attain primacy on wastewater permit regulation, which would mean NPDES permits could be issued through the state Department of Environmental Quality rather than the EPA. NPDES stands for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Under the federal Clean Water Act, the NPDES permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States.

Hammond said, "This issue has been studied two or three times before; the challenge that has always held it up is financing." He said the permitting process has become increasingly unwieldy for everyone from Idaho cities to the transportation department to the timber industry. "The overreach from EPA has just grown larger and larger and is affecting more and more of our economic development within the state," Hammond said, calling Kootenai County the "poster child" for the issue, as three cities there struggle to meet expensive discharge requirements to the Spokane River to match those set by the state of Washington.

"It'll stop growth, it'll stop development - it's a real challenge," Hammond said. The committee agreed unanimously to introduce the resolution and schedule a full hearing on it.