We are wrecking the waters around McCall. We must do better | Opinion

I stood on the shore of Payette Lake in McCall, on a late September day in 2024, during the shoulder season. The flat calm of the Lake was disturbed only by the wake of a lone otter, the reflection of the surrounding mountains on its surface, crisp, smokeless, blue skies, titanium-white columns of cumulus clouds and the sound of a few honking geese in the distance.

Missing were the tourists that sometimes outnumber full-time residents; absent were the sounds of engines and music booming from power and wake boats. It was the quiet in-between time for residents and wildlife before the start of the ski and snowmobile season.

Payette Lake, the tourist centerpiece of McCall, is 35% “impaired,” according to EPA impairment criteria that include invasive Eurasian milfoil, phosphorus loading from erosion and road runoff, and sediment disturbance from wake boats that also spread milfoil. On average, all our waterways in Valley County are 47% impaired. McCall’s 15-year-old sewer treatment pond liner leak sends thousands of gallons of treated water downstream into the North Fork of the Payette River and Cascade Reservoir, increasing phosphorus levels that contribute to toxic algae outbreaks in the reservoir.

Overwhelming scientific evidence confirms that power boats, especially wake boats, are destructive to inland lakes. In 2024, the McCall City Council approved an expansion of the Mile High Marina, which will add 90 power and wake boats slips to the lake. Valley County commissioners supported a new 100-slip marina for Cascade Reservoir, which has been experiencing years of toxic Cyanobacteria blooms. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has been issuing warnings to people and pets for years about the dangers of swimming and drinking the water when blooms arrive earlier and linger longer.

Subdivision applications continue to be approved by the county commissioners without considering their impacts; increased fertilizer and pesticide use or addressing agricultural and livestock runoff. The commissioners have also ignored substantive recommendations of the Valley County Waterways Management Plan, none of which have been implemented since the commissioners adopted the Plan three years ago.

A sewer line collapsed near the Lake in March 2026, and a new tear has developed in the decade-old leaking wastewater pond liner, all while new building applications were being submitted and approved.

New threats to our waterways are also coming from the Western Whitewater Association and the Idaho Recreation Council, which are mounting a strong lobbying effort to allow mini jet boats on the North Fork of the Payette River and on smaller tributaries. Their reasoning is to allow for recreation; they argue that it’s their right, and they bizarrely contend that the boat owners would move snags and downed trees. However, drowned trees and snags are essential for vital habitat, food and structural diversity, as well as for stabilizing banks. They create pools for fish and aquatic insects to thrive, trap sediment for spawning, offer resting spots for birds and waterfowl, and help reduce water temperatures.

If we believe our waters are a living consortium, and we are a small part of that complex connection, and if we believe we are not just surrounded by water, we are water, a planet of water, then why have we become so disconnected from our waterways and so harmful to them?

In “A River Runs Through It,” Norman Maclean writes that he is “haunted by waters,” by his loss of loved ones, none of which we can control.

Writer Mary Hutto Fruchter states, “The only thing we have control over in life is where we put our attention.”

The choice rests with all of us whether we want to be haunted by our waters and pass the haunt on or protect our waters so others may stand on the shore ten or twenty years from now, joyful and thankful that we took another approach, embracing a value beyond a commodity for profit. An approach that is more respectful and protective of our waterways.

David Gallipoli is a photographer, writer and activist.