The Big Payette Lake Water Quality Council, which steered work to preserve Payette Lake's water quality for 11 years, decided Tuesday it will disband in March as provided by state law. The dissolution of the council does not mean there will be no body overseeing the water quality of the lake.

The council will be replaced by the Big Payette Waterside Advisory Group, a committee of agencies and citizens overseen by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

At Tuesday's meeting at McCall City Hall, Council Chair Peter Johnson presented the council with a set of proposed regulations for preserving water quality that the council would ask local, state and federal agencies to adopt.

But council members decided Johnson's recommendations needed further study, and the group will likely meet again in January.

The watershed advisory group, like the water council, has no enforcement authority, but recommends actions to those agencies that can enforce laws.

Expiration date extended
The Idaho Legislature created the council in 1993 through the Big Payette Lake Water Quality Act, and charged it with developing a lake management plan and educating the public on keeping the waters clean.

The law required the council be dissolved after seven years, but the council requested and received a five-year extension.

The legislature adopted the council's lake management plan in 1998.

The plan drew upon studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the DEQ during 1995-96.
The studies reported signs of deterioration brought on by past land use, residential development on the shoreline, and higher levels of recreation.

The plan required water-quality monitoring, and the U.S. Geological Survey reported yearly to the council until 2003.

Volunteer efforts launched
In 1998, the council launched its Adopt-A-Lake program, an effort at public education that offered free of charge a packet of tips for clean water and bumper stickers announcing "I have adopted Big Payette Lake."

The council also introduced a program in cooperation with the DEQ and the Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts to teach lakeside homeowners ways to eliminate sediment and pollutants originating from their homes, yards and driveways.

The council also adopted in November 2002 a fuel spill prevention project aimed at residents and visitors owning watercraft.

The council also supported efforts to remove the invasive weed Eurasian watermilfoil, to place fuel-absorbing booms around the fuel dock at Harry's Dry Dock and Sports Marina, and placing portable toilets at popular attractions like Fireman's Point and the Diving Rocks on the east shore of Payette Lake.

Knowing that the end of the council was near, Johnson asked the DEQ in October to approve creating a watershed advisory group that would oversee Payette Lake and its tributaries.

DEQ Director Toni Hardesty appointed Johnson, council member William Weida and Craig Shepard of the DEQ's Boise Regional Office to a committee to handle the formation of the watershed advisory group.

State law requires at least nine members on the group, but water council members on Tuesday said they preferred a roster of 16 that would include representatives from the Forest Service, the Idaho Department of Lands, the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the city of McCall and the Payette Lake Water and Sewer District in addition to most existing council members.

Johnson said he would continue to participate in the advisory group and would support the new chairman once chosen.