Schmidt is New Deputy Director of USGS Idaho Water Science Center

Christian Schmidt is the Deputy Director of the Idaho Water Science Center (Public domain.)

BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Geological Survey has selected Christian Schmidt as the Deputy Director of its Idaho Water Science Center, headquartered in Boise.

Schmidt comes to Idaho from Helena, Montana, where he served as the Water Quality Division Administrator for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. His staff of 130 oversaw the state’s Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act programs. He led studies examining the effects of nutrients, pathogens, sediment and pesticides at the watershed scale, as well as research into irrigation management and incidental aquifer recharge.

He graduated from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Forestry and Environmental Biology and Forest Hydrology.

In his new position, Schmidt will lead the USGS’s Boise-based team of hydrologists, hydraulic engineers and biologists studying water availability, water quality and other Idaho water issues in cooperation with local, state, tribal and federal partners. He believes that his experience helping to lead a state regulatory agency will strengthen the USGS commitment to providing reliable science for sound decision-making.

“In Montana, we focused on bringing together regulatory and non-regulatory work in a common mission to address environmental issues,” said Schmidt. “The USGS has always been a great partner for the Northwest’s resource managers, but I think I can add the perspective of one who has sat where they are sitting.”

The USGS Idaho Water Science Center provides reliable, impartial scientific information about surface and ground water, water quality, and water use to citizens and local, state, tribal and federal partners. In addition to the Boise headquarters, the center has field offices in Boise, Post Falls and Idaho Falls, as well as a project office at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls.