COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County moved one step closer this week to authorizing Panhandle Health District to enforce rules about how businesses located over the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer handle chemicals. 

Though PHD has administered the aquifer protection rules since 1997, the Idaho Legislature determined that health districts are not state agencies and thus don’t have rulemaking or enforcement authority on their own. 

“The state legislature stripped away PHD’s (Idaho Administrative Procedure Act) rule,” Community Development Director David Callahan said. 

As a result, counties and municipalities have since adopted ordinances that allow health districts to carry out certain functions. The cities of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls have already adopted new ordinances for critical materials management, as well as memorandums of understanding with PHD for inspections and enforcement. 

Kootenai County planning and zoning commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to recommend that the county adopt an ordinance authorizing PHD as the enforcement agency for the critical materials program, which manages how materials with the potential to contaminate groundwater below the aquifer are handled. 

Jenny Gray, the aquifer protection coordinator for Panhandle Health District, emphasized the importance of protecting the aquifer from contamination. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on the aquifer as their source of drinking water. 

“Treating water is extremely expensive,” she said. “We’re very fortunate that we really don’t have to treat our water. We’ve got wells in the ground and what we’re pulling up is straight from the aquifer. We want to be able to continue that into the future.” 

When balancing regulation and oversight against the risk of harm due to lack of regulation, planning and zoning commissioner Leander James said he came out favoring the ordinance. 

“There’s a tremendous risk of harm if there’s a major spill,” he said. “It could result in hundreds of families and businesses being unable to use their properties.” 

The matter will next go before county commissioners in a public hearing. All three commissioners have previously expressed support for the proposal.