On Friday, the nation's longest-serving state water quality director will step down — Don Ostler, who's held the job in Utah since 1987.

Ostler isn't retiring, however. At 55, he's about to start a new career as executive director for the Upper Colorado River Commission, which represents the interests of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming in the administration of the Colorado River compact.

"I have just done this for a long time," Ostler said of working for Utah's Division of Water Quality for a total of 32 years. "It's just a great opportunity and the timing is very good for me to take my experiences working with water problems and apply them to a little different area."

The year Ostler joined the state agency, 1972, is the same year the federal clean water act was passed. He called that legislation the first major step taken to clean up the nation's water supply.

"That was the beginning of a major movement. I've had the advantage of being involved in that from the ground up," Ostler said, listing a number of accomplishments relating to the state's implementation of the act.

Those include working with Utah's agriculture community to create a program to deal with animal waste from hog farms and similar enterprises. The state's program has been cited by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a model for others to follow.

In the past two years alone, Ostler said, there have been some 3,000 farm assessments done through the program to identify farms with pollution problems. The program allows farmers some time to remedy the problems.

"Water is getting cleaned up quicker" through this approach rather than the more traditional enforcement of regulations, he said. "Sometimes you can get things done quicker just by going in with the inspectors rather than the lawyers."

Ostler said he is also proud that the division has doubled the amount of water monitored by the state under his watch. The percentage of Utah's water that is being monitored has jumped from 40 percent to 80 percent.

There was never any question in Ostler's mind that he would end up in the water business. His father worked for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, and Ostler recalls his family living across from a federal tunnel project near Mirror Lake when he was young.

"I was impressed with that kind of water," he said. "I always wanted to do it and never changed my mind."

In fact, one of Ostler's early jobs was with the Bureau of Reclamation. But by the time he joined the agency, most of the big water projects were finished.

"They weren't building more water projects, but what was happening was clean water," Ostler said.

So he came to the state as a staff engineer and stayed for more than three decades.

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When he starts his new job on Monday, he'll face new challenges.

"There are a lot of major issues coming up with the drought and the ever-increasing demands for water in the west," he said.

His boss at the state Department of Environmental Quality, Dianne Nielson, said, "Utah's water quality is better because of Don's work. His leadership and commitment to quality surface water and groundwater are reflected in the quality of our environment."


E-mail: lisa@desnews.com

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