Selkirk Conservation Alliance will be working with Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and local community stakeholders over the next couple of years to get Priest Lake nominated for, and adopted as, an Idaho Outstanding Resource Water (ORW).
Our goal is to permanently protect the waters of Priest Lake and the wildlife and lands these healthy waters support through a grassroots movement of friends and partners! We seek to keep the waters of the Priest Basin swimmable, fishable and drinkable for the next seven generations.
Definition:
Outstanding Resource Water (ORW). A high quality water, such as water of national and state parks and wildlife refuges and water of exceptional recreational or ecological significance, which has been designated by the legislature and subsequently listed in this chapter (IDAPA 58.01.02). ORW constitutes an outstanding national or state resource that requires protection from point and nonpoint source activities that may lower water quality.
It is required under the highest, tier III, Clean Water Act (CWA) protections that, where an outstanding resource water has been designated by the legislature, that water quality shall be maintained and protected from the impacts of point and nonpoint source activities, FOREVER!
Outstanding Resource Waters are designated by the Idaho legislature and there will be a lengthy nomination, public notice and comment, public hearing and Idaho Board of Environmental Quality (Board) review process for directing the Department to develop legislation designating Priest Lake as an Idaho ORW.
The nomination shall include the following information:
- The name, description and location of the stream segment;
- The boundaries upstream and downstream of the stream segment;
- An explanation of what makes the segment a candidate for the designation;
- A description of the existing water quality and any technical data upon which the description is based as can be found in the most current basin status reports;
- A discussion of the types of nonpoint source activities currently being conducted that may lower water quality, together with those activities that are anticipated during the next two (2) years, as described in the most current basin status reports; and
- Any additional evidence to substantiate such a designation.
A BIG part of submitting a “winning” nomination packet will be “bulletproof” data on Priest Lake water quality as well as analysis of this data. IDEQ will be conducting an assessment on Priest Lake water quality and beneficial uses in 2026 and 2027. IDEQ will then submit this data to be included in the 2028 Integrated Report.
IDEQ is responsible for monitoring and assessing the quality of Idaho’s water bodies to determine if they meet state water quality standards and support beneficial uses. The IDEQ is supposed to conduct a comprehensive analysis every two years and summarizes the findings in the “Integrated Report.”
This report is a key document for understanding the current conditions of Idaho’s surface waters and we will be in a stronger position to get Priest Lake designated as an ORW when this assessment has been completed and is enshrined in the 2028 Integrated Report.
This will place our timeline for nominating Priest Lake as an ORW into April 2028 or 2029.
This will give us plenty of time to compile a solid nomination packet with substantial supporting documentation/”valid reasons” to present to the Board and legislature as to why the Lakes should receive ORW protections under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
On a positive note, the IDEQ State Office Standards Department really wants to go after this!
IDAHO ADMINISTRATIVE CODE Department of Environmental Quality IDAPA 58.01.02
Read more on the process and timeline for nomination
Read up on the first attempt to nominate Priest
Info on restrictions that accompany Tier III protection status