01/29/09 Less water testing

A recent article in a Boise paper reported that a scalpel had been taken to State budgets and one of the items that had been surgically altered was testing of well water: specifically, and to quote&"Among this year's budget cuts at the Idaho State Department of Agriculture are programs that regularly check for groundwater contamination across the state. The article went on to say "Agriculture has already eliminated two positions from its groundwater program and demoted the water section manager. "Fewer people will mean you do less sampling," said George Robinson, who now supervises the ISDA's shrinking water section. One could conclude that less well water testing could mean that monitoring wells at mega-dairies or checking for pesticide seepage might be eliminated or compromised and hat wouldn't be good for water safety. Not so says Pam Juker, Chief of Staff at the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. "We did go through zero-based budgeting and looked at all our programs obviously, but with that program what we also realized is that our sister agencies, other natural resources agencies, also did some of the same things. So what we're trying to do with that is consolidate and work more efficiently with our sister agencies. Of two of the employees who left, one went to DEQ and one went to water resources, so they're still within the state system and doing water work. We're collaborating with those agencies to make that program run more efficiently."