Big Payette Lake Water Quality Council

01/11/2024

Our comment letter regarding the Mile High Marina expansion.
Your voices and comments are appreciated AND important! All comments MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 3:00 PM TOMORROW (Thursday, Jan. 10) through the city of McCall’s website! https://comment.mccall.id.us

04/18/2022

We are pleased to announce that the Big Payette Lake Water Quality Council is back online after a little break from social media!

We have been busy in the meantime on a number of projects, including fundraising for and supporting graduate research studies on Big Payette Lake and the creation of a soon-to-be-announced homeowner's guide for protecting Payette Lake. We will post updates very soon as our work progresses and is rolled out, and we can't wait to share with you all that we have been working on, as well as some upcoming events that the Water Quality Council will be involved in.

In the meantime, if you'd like to know more or have questions about Payette Lake, our Council or our current projects, please visit our website for more information. We are looking forward to sharing more of our work with you soon!

Protecting and sustaining Payette Lake Idaho

04/24/2019

Wow-what a turn out! Thank you to all of you who spoke at the Commissioner's hearing on behalf of Payette Lake.

04/21/2019

Please spread the word to all Valley County residents to come out and testify at the public hearings Monday (Cascade) and Tuesday (McCall) on the draft Valley County Waterways Ordinance. (See prior post for dates and times.)

The boating industry is coming out of the wood work with a lot of loud and non-local voices, coming not just from the state industry, but also at the national level. (E.g., see https://www.nmma.org/press/article/22620).

These are our lakes, our natural resources, and our drinking water, and not those of the Washington D.C. lobbying groups, who only have a financial interest in selling as many expensive boats as possible.

Commissioners in Valley County, Idaho are proposing an ordinance that would limit wake boating to 1000 feet off shore of Payette Lake, effectively eliminating many of the areas where the boats are use

04/17/2019

Thank you to those of you who wrote letters to the Valley County Commissioners commenting on draft Ordinance 19-05. BPLWQC’s letter is available on the PROJECTS tab on our website www.bigpayettelake.org

Please try and attend the p***c hearings on April 22 (Cascade) or April 23 (McCall.)

04/17/2019

A big thanks to those of who who wrote comments or attended the Idaho Department of Lands p***c hearings on the Tamarack Bay lease (Lookout on the Lake). IDL decided to rescind the lease as it failed to comply with department protocol. IDL is, however, instructed to auction the lease at a p***c auction, so this large parcel of undeveloped, lakefront land is still threatened with potential development.

04/13/2019

Reminder--Letters commenting on the draft Valley County Waterways Ordinance are due on Monday, April 15th. Email to your commissioners at:
[email protected]

03/24/2019

Draft wakesurfing ordinance available!

This week the commissioners posted their proposed ordinance for waterways in Valley County and set a schedule for public hearings. Both are on the commissioner's page of the County website at:

http://www.co.valley.id.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/notice-waterways-ordinance.pdf

Please plan to speak at the hearing or write to the commissioners.

Written testimony must be submitted before April 15. Hearings are scheduled at the American Legion Hall in Cascade on April 22 6pm and at Idaho First Bank in McCall April 23 6pm.

03/16/2019

News is that the Valley County Commissioners will have a draft ordinance for Payette Lake soon. Stay tuned in--we'll post the draft ordinance when it is available. Once provided, there will be at least 30 days to review before the County takes comments/has a public hearing.

03/06/2019

Valley County Commissioners to meet on Monday, March 11th at 3:30pm, in the county courthouse in Cascade to draft potential wakesurfing regulations. There is no formal public hearing or time for public comment scheduled, but the public is welcome to attend.

Make sure that the Commissioners hear your voices and are not bullied by the boating industry lobby, like has happened to so many other lakeside communities in Idaho.

Attend if you can, and continue to send letters of support for wakesurfing regulations to the Commissioners at:

[email protected]

03/02/2019

House Bill 166 is up for hearing Monday in the Idaho House State Affairs Committee. It proposes to reduce the number of times official notices must be published in the newspaper to only one printing, regardless of the subject matter. Access the text of the bill at:

https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2019/legislation/H0166.pdf

As you know from current controversies in McCall, often our only notice of public actions of importance and budgets is through the newspaper. And, if those notices don’t get published, as we have dealt with in McCall recently, or are published minimally, the public pays the price through lack of awareness and the impaired ability to respond.

Please send your views to the members of the House State Affairs Committee, below. Comments must be received by the Committee by 8:45 a.m., Monday, March 4th.

House State Affairs
Steven Harris, Chairman (R-Meridian)
[email protected]
Randy Armstrong, Vice Chairman (R-Inkom)
[email protected]
Brent Crane (R-Nampa)
[email protected]
Joe Palmer (R-Meridian)
[email protected]
Vito Barbieri (R-Dalton Gardens)
[email protected]
James Holtzclaw, Chairman (R-Meridian)
[email protected]
Jason Monks (R-Nampa)
[email protected]
Christy Zito (R-Hammett)
[email protected]
Heather Scott (R-Blanchard)
[email protected]
Kevin Andrus (R-Lava Hot Springs)
[email protected]
Linda Hartgen (R-Twin Falls)
[email protected]
Julianne Young (R-Blackfoot)
[email protected]
Elaine Smith (D-Pocatello)
[email protected]
John Gannon (D-Boise)
[email protected]
Brooke Green (D-Boise)
[email protected]

03/01/2019

The Valley County Commissioners are working their way through drafting a new ordinance to govern the use of motor craft on Payette Lake.

Please continue to send letters to them letting them know that you support restrictions on the use of wake-enhancing technology (wakesurfing).

Letters can be sent by email to [email protected].