Department of
Environmental Quality

DEQ Guidance

Guidance may include memoranda, manuals, policy statements, interpretations of law or rules, and other material that are of general applicability, whether prepared by the agency alone or jointly with other persons. In some cases, guidance consists of recommended best management practices. Guidance does not have the force and effect of law or rule. Rather, it is designed to serve as primary reference tools to assist those impacted by agency actions to comply with laws and rules. Access major guidance documents below.

Administrative

• Trade Secret Information, Guidance Document for Handling of (GD98-2): Provides guidelines for DEQ staff on how to protect confidentiality of certain trade secret information.
• Vendor Guide: Explains DEQ's process for purchasing services, including how to get on DEQ's vendor list, bid notification procedures, and vendor requirements.

Air Quality

• Crop Residue Burning Operating Guide: Describes the overall and day-to-day operation of the crop residue burning program, including grower and DEQ requirements during the burn and non-burn seasons.
• Dust, Fugitive: Prevention and Control Plan: Explains how to develop a plan to prevent and control fugitive dust on paved public roadways, unpaved haul roads, conveyor transfer points and screening operations, crushers and grider mills, and stockpiles.
• Emissions Data Hierarchy Guidance: Establishes the hierarchy of emissions data acceptability for air quality permit applications and permit applicability decisions.
• Modeling Guidance: Explains when modeling is required; outlines applicable standards, methodology, and analysis; and provides checklists and templates for conducting modeling and reporting modeling results.
• Petroleum-Contaminated Media, Guidance for the Remediation of: Explains the process for evaluating and exempting petroleum-contaminated operations from air permitting requirements. Remediation projects that do not meet the air pollution requirements of this guidance must either self-exempt or obtain a Permit to Construct (PTC).
• Quality Assurance Project Plan: Prescribes operational procedures for sampling, analyzing, and reporting air pollution and meteorological conditions. The manual is reviewed annually and revised as needed, subject to approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• Roadway Projects in Idaho, Project Level Air Quality Screening, Analysis, and Documentation: Explains process for demonstrating that federally funded transportation projects in Idaho will not cause or contribute to new or additional violations of air quality standards.
• Source Test Guidance Manual: Clarifies DEQ's regulatory requirements regarding how to prepare for stationary source emission testing and report the results.
  
• Visible Emissions, Guide to Evaluating: Describes visible emissions certification requirements and procedures, observation techniques, and how to calculate opacity.
• Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials: Information for local public health officials on how to communicate health risks and precautions to the public during a wildfire smoke event.
• Woody Biomass Project Checklist: Highlights energy, financial, and environmental permitting requirements that must be considered by potential woody biomass projects in Idaho.

Water Quality

• §401 Certification Guidance: Provides an overview of time frames and procedures pertaining to 401 certifications.
• Aquaculture Operations, Idaho Waste Management Guidelines for: Provides a variety of best management practices to prevent or reduce pollution generated from aquculture production facilities.
• Biosolids, Guidance for Land Application of Municipal (December 2011)
  Assists biosolids generators, users, and regulatory officials in developing biosolids management plans that comply with state requirements. Relates specifically to use of biosolids resulting from treatment of municipal wastewater.
  
• Confined Feeding Operations (CAFOs), Idaho Waste Management Guidelines for: Offers guidelines to assist CAFO managers and regulators in complying with state and federal water quality regulations to prevent water pollution.
• Drinking Water Loan Handbook: Explains the process for obtaining loans from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for drinking water infrastructure projects.
• Drinking Water Sources in Idaho, Protecting: A Guidance for Public Water Systems: Explains voluntary activities that communities may take to protect drinking water, including contaminant prevention.
• Forest Practices Water Quality Management Plan, State of Idaho: Provides guidance on controlling nonpoint source pollution from forest practices activities.
• Ground Water Quality Monitoring Program, Guidance for Developing for Managed Recharge Projects by Land Application: Provides guidance on how to develop a ground water quality monitoring program demonstrating that a land application recharge project will not adversely affect a beneficial use of waters of the state.
• Ground Water Quality Plan (Idaho): Presents Idaho's plan for protecting ground water quality now and for future generations, with an emphasis on preventing ground water contamination whenever possible, and provides agencies with direction to develop management programs and regulations and to implement ground water quality protection strategies.
• Ground Water Quality and Degradation (Background), Statistical Guidance for Determining: Describes a process for DEQ to use when determining if ground water quality is degraded.
• Ground Water Sampling and Monitoring, A Guide to: Presents a general set of guidelines for conducting ground water monitoring and sampling.
• Invasive Species Prevention, DEQ Procedures for Decontamination of Monitoring Equipment: Outlines the procedures followed by DEQ to prevent the spread of invasive species while monitoring surface waters.
• Lagoon Seepage Rates, Guidance for Evaluating Wastewater Lagoon: Provides guidance to wastewater lagoon owners and consultants on how to comply with seepage test requirements. (August 2016) | Seepage Calculation Spreadsheet
• Lagoon Seepage Test Statistical Review Describes URS' statistical review of seepage tests and associated calculations in support of compliance with DEQ’s “Guidance for Evaluating Wastewater Lagoon Seepage Rates.” (October 2011)
  
• Monitoring Waiver Guidance: Provides guidance for public water systems on how to apply for a waiver from monitoring requirements for certain chemical contaminants.
• Nutrient-Pathogen Evaluation Program for On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems: Provides guidance for conducting nutrient-pathogen evaluations. (May 2002) | Spreadsheet for Level 1 Evaluations
• Pollutant Trading Guidance: Provides guidance for the implementation of pollutant trading within the state of Idaho.
• River Ecological Assessment Framework (Idaho): Describes DEQ's ecological assessment approach to determine aquatic life use support in Idaho's rivers.
• Sewage Systems, Individual and Subsurface, Technical Guidance Manual for: Provides guidance on the design, construction, alteration, repair, operation and maintenance of standard individual and subsurface sewage systems, their components, and alternatives.
• Small Stream Ecological Assessment Framework (Idaho): Describes DEQ's ecological assessment approach to determine aquatic life use support in Idaho's small streams.
• Source Water Assessment Plan (Idaho): Describes the major components of, and the procedures for, conducting source water assessments.
• Stormwater Best Management Practices for Cities and Counties, Catalog of: Provides technical guidance for construction site design and the selection of stormwater best management practices.
• Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Plan: Consists of a combination of random and targeted monitoring surveys to address statewide evaluation of Idaho's waters and support other surface water quality programs.
• Surface Water (Minor) Discharges: Provides guidance on the permitting of minor surface water discharges. (January 2002)
• Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), Guidance for Development of (GD99-1): Historical reference outlining the procedures DEQ intended to follow to develop TMDLs for all water quality limited waters by the end of 2005.
• TMDLs, Guide to Selection of Sediment Targets for Use in Idaho: Suggests appropriate water column and streambed measures for gaugin attainment of the narrative sediment goal.
• Wastewater Land Application Operators Study and Reference Manual: Provides operators of wastewater reuse systems with the basic understanding needed to operate these systems in an efficient and environmentally sound manner.
• Wastewater Loan Handbook: Explains the process for obtaining loans from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund for wastewater infrastructure projects.
• Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse, Guidance for: Provides assistance and technical information on permitting and other requirements to operators of wastewater reuse projects throughout the state.
• Water Body Assessment Guidance: Describes DEQ methods used to evaluate data and determine beneficial use support of Idaho water bodies.
• Water Quality Monitoring Protocols: A series of documents outlining various water quality monitoring procedures.
• Wood Preservatives and Preserved Wood Products In or Around Aquatic Environments, Guidance for the Use of: Provides guidance for DEQ staff and the regulated community in their efforts to minimize the potential for negative water qulaity impacts and violations of water quality standards associated with the use of preserved wood products.

Waste Management & Remediation

• Contained-In Policy for Environmental Media (GD97-2): Explains that DEQ has discretion to consider contaminant-specific health-based levels when determining whether environmental media contaminated with hazardous wastes contain those hazardous wastes.
• Medical Waste Management and Disposal Guidance: Assists hospitals, clinics, physicians' offices, dental practices, blood banks, veterinary hospitals/clinics, medical research facilities, and laboratories in  understanding proper transport, treatment, and disposal of regulated medical waste.
• Processing (Composting) Facility Guidance and Checklists for Tier II and Tier III Processing Facilities: Assists compost facility owners, facility operators, and the general public in understanding the regulatory requirements that apply to composting facilities in Idaho.
• Risk Evaluation Manual: Provides guidance for evaluating risk, from discovery through cleanup, to determine whether ground water, surface water, or soil at a particular location is contaminated when chemicals have been released into the environment.
• Voluntary Remediation Program Guidance for Application Completion: Assists applicants in completion of required application for participation in the Voluntary Remediation Program.
• Wood and Mill Yard Debris Technical Guidance Manual: Provides practical and approved best management plans for the handling, use, or disposal of wood and mill yard debris in Idaho.