My summer internship with ICL

By Elias Kemp, Summer 2026 Regulatory Program Intern

Over the summer of 2026, I had the privilege of interning for the Idaho Conservation League’s clean air and water program. I worked with Will Tiedemann, ICL’s Regulatory Program Manager, to review draft air and water pollution permits across the state. We acted as “watchdogs,” ensuring that permits drafted by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) complied with the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other environmental legislation, like DEQ’s Idaho Administrative Procedure Act (IDAPA) rules.

My familiarity with ICL dates back more than ten years, to my single-digit years, when my family and I volunteered as ICL Wilderness Stewards. On Idaho’s many trails, we counted deadfall, chatted with other hikers, and provided ICL with data from the state’s many wilderness areas. Still hanging in my family’s living room is a misspelled Hemingway–Boulders Wilderness sign, which was a gift that ICL gave to its wilderness stewards during one of the years we participated in that program.

The Heminway Boulders [sic] Wilderness sign—a gift to ICL volunteers.

Now, I’m a student at Colby College in Maine, where I’m focusing on philosophy and environmental studies. I call Colorado home, and environmental health is still at the forefront of my mind, as are the mountains and wilderness areas of Idaho. Thinking back on my early experiences with the Idaho Conservation League, I decided to reach out about summer internship opportunities, and Will was kind enough to invite me to work on the regulatory program over the summer.

When I got started, Will threw me in the deep end—in a good way. On my second day, I was reading permits and environmental rules. Most of my work consisted of drafting public comments on DEQ permits. Usually, that meant reading all available permitting materials, taking notes during the process; reviewing federal and state regulations, especially IDAPA rules and Code of Federal Regulations entries; and evaluating the extent to which DEQ’s permits uphold environmental health.

I looked over an air pollution permit for Micron’s new Boise facility expansion, I called DEQ’s attention to questionable water reuse practices, I drafted comments on the Mayfield Ranch Water and Sewer District wastewater land application permit (a new housing development proposed between Boise and Mountain Home), and I wrote up comments for another wastewater discharge permit for the Stibnite Gold Project’s Worker Housing Facility, among many others.

While I spent most of the summer working remotely from my home in Colorado, I did travel to Idaho in early August for a visit to ICL’s Boise headquarters. I got to meet the team, plus some of the furry friends who were running around the office. I also drafted comments on Brundage Mountain Resort’s draft wastewater discharge permit from a desk in ICL’s main office and took a trip up to the Stibnite Gold Mine with Will, near Yellow Pine.

Seeing the Stibnite mine in person gave me a renewed appreciation for the work that ICL does—the work to which I contributed this summer. The scale of the mine, as well as the extent of environmental alteration taking place up in Stibnite, make a compelling case for the kind of work that ICL does. At ICL, we look out for the wellbeing of Idaho’s outdoor beauty and environmental health, as well as the health of all those whose lives are shaped by those two things. That usually involves less glamorous things: DEQ permits, rules, and public comments; lawsuits and Zoom calls; long email threads, word processing software, and extensive citations.

But the work ICL does, and the laws/rules/permits that govern how humans and human infrastructure interact with the environment, play out in significant and tangible ways. Sometimes, ICL’s work encourages DEQ to revise a waste water limit for a city’s wastewater treatment plant. Other times, it’s a major motivator behind a wilderness designation, as it was with the Boulder-White Clouds.

I’m grateful to have spent a summer working toward a regulatory landscape that stewards the natural landscape, rather than leaving it susceptible to damage and degradation. I’m also thrilled to have met through ICL so many passionate, intelligent people who care deeply about conserving Idaho’s natural resources. In addition to a stronger understanding of Idaho’s regulatory landscape, I’ll take this kind of infectious passion with me as I head into my senior year of college and later into my career.