DEQ upholds bypass certification

SANDPOINT - A group representing Sandpoint businesses opposed to the U.S. Highway 95 bypass has lost a challenge of the project's water quality certification.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality certification holds that the highway realignment project will not violate state water quality standards. The certification is an essential component of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' permit approval of the proposed Sand Creek Byway.

“The army corps' permit isn't good without the certification,” said June Bergquist, a regional water quality compliance officer with DEQ in Coeur d'Alene.

The Association of Concerned Sandpoint Businesses appealed the certification administratively, calling on DEQ to rescind the approval and redo the regulatory process. But a DEQ hearing officer denied the appeal and ruled in favor of the state, said Barbara Babic, the Idaho Transportation Department's Panhandle region spokeswoman.

“The department doesn't have the order yet, but the reason given (for the denial) was that they - ACSB - failed to meet their burden of proof to show how the DEQ's certification was wrong,” said Babic.

Babic said the ruling came after ACSB presented its case and before the state had an opportunity to present its case.

The hearing officer's decision was reached on Wednesday, after a two-day hearing at ITD's regional headquarters in Hayden. Sandpoint businessman Pierre Bordenave represented ACSB at the hearing.

Bordenave refuses all comment to this paper because he claims he is treated unfairly.

Doug Conde, a deputy attorney general with DEQ, said a preliminary order on the ACSB appeal is being drafted.

“That order becomes a final order unless somebody objects within 14 days,” Conde said.

Conde said ACSB could either appeal the hearing officer's determination in district court, or appeal it administratively to the Idaho Board of Environmental Quality.

ASCB and the North Idaho Community Action Network, another group fighting the project because of its impact on the waterfront and Sand Creek, unsuccessfully appealed the Idaho Department of Lands' encroachment permit for the bypass. IDL's approval is being challenged in court by Sandpoint developer Ralph Sletager, who owns a marina on Sand Creek.

A lawsuit NICAN filed against the corps of engineers' permit approval is pending. The Idaho Transportation Department is contemplating a $98.5 million bid to construct the project.