1. 2024 draft integrated report

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is seeking data on streams, lakes and reservoirs for its 2026 integrated report.

Water quality is the focus of the report, published every two years. It classifies water bodies into five categories, ranging from meeting water quality standards to being impaired by one or more pollutants.

Data collected no earlier than 2020 and not previously submitted are most useful, according to a department news release. The data may be supplied by other agencies, institutions, commercial interests, interest groups or individuals.

The data and the report help department staff determine if water bodies meet water quality standards and support beneficial uses, according to the department. Where water quality fails to meet state standards, staff evaluates causes and pollutant sources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved 12 new and 38 revised total maximum daily loads since the 2022 integrated report, according to a state Department of Environmental Quality summary of the 2024 draft report.

The department has reported an increase in listings for temperature, combined biota, bacteria, sedimentation and cadmium, among many other pollutants, Dan Eardley, DEQ federal reporting lead, told Capital Press.

“Most of this increasing listing trend is due in part to more data being obtained through the call for data and during our query of publicly available data for the integrated report,” he said.

Data for all pollutants in Idaho are welcomed, Eardley said. The department is interested in data that relate to unidentified or existing pollutants in a water body or that document improvements to water quality.

The report is submitted in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. It describes DEQ’s efforts to monitor, assess, track and restore the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the state’s surface waters, he said.

Information: Eardley, 208-373-0147 or dan.eardley@deq.idaho.gov.