Group: Wastewater plants destroying Spokane River
Monday, March 15, 2004 7:28 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleSPOKANE (AP) -- The Spokane River flows out of scenic Lake Coeur d'Alene, rolls over majestic falls in downtown Spokane and finally disappears into the Columbia River in the surreal landscape of the Channeled Scablands.
But for much of its course it is an oxygen-depleted wasteland for aquatic life, according to the Sierra Club: Chemicals flow into the river from five wastewater treatment plants.
The local chapter of the organization is trying to block a proposed sixth sewage treatment plant on the river.
"The problem arises from the fact that five existing sewage treatment plants are already serving approximately 400,000 people in this region," according to a letter to government officials from Rachael Paschal Osborn, of the Upper Columbia River Group of the Sierra Club.
The treated effluent, rich in phosphorus, is released back into the river, where it depletes oxygen in the water, she said.
The river is already listed as "water quality impaired" for dissolved oxygen, and federal law does not allow additional pollution, the letter said.
The state Department of Ecology just finished a study of the river that indicated that existing treatment plants at Coeur d'Alene, Hayden and Post Falls in Idaho, and Liberty Lake and Spokane in Washington must reduce their existing discharges to the river before Spokane County can obtain a permit for a new treatment plant.
The state agency is negotiating with federal and local officials to solve the problem.
"The river didn't get into this condition overnight, and we won't make it better overnight, either," said Jim Bellatty, who manages Ecology's water-quality program in Spokane.
Within the next year, a cleanup plan will set limits for how much phosphorus and other organic matter can be sent to the river. The cleanup plan also will recommend ways to reduce pollution from sources such as fertilizers, animal waste and failing septic systems.
"Although some pollutants in the river have decreased over the years because of better wastewater treatment practices, water quality standards for dissolved oxygen are still being violated," said Ecology's Bob Cusimano, who wrote the report.
Ecology Department spokeswoman Jani Gilbert said the state and Spokane County are also looking for ways to bring additional wastewater treatment capacity to the growing area without increasing pollution in the river.
The two sites under consideration for the new plant, the former Playfair Race Track and the former Stockyards, have been selected based on a treatment and disposal design that assumes the county will be able to discharge to the Spokane River, the Sierra Club said.
Since that is unlikely, the county should consider a design in which no additional effluent is discharged to the river, the Sierra Club said.
Such a design would require more land, different soils and a longer distance from the river than the present proposed sites, the Sierra Club said.
The Sierra Club also objected to the location of the proposed sites in Spokane's impoverished East Central neighborhood. That area is already under stress from proposed expansion of Interstate 90 and a north-south freeway, which will remove housing and businesses.
"It is inappropriate for the county to propose to use the largest available parcel in that neighborhood for wastewater treatment, a use that will bring no jobs or commercial opportunities to the neighborhood," the Sierra Club said.
"The reality is that the benefits of the wastewater treatment plant will accrue to many, while the burden will fall on East Central," the group said.
Ecology's Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/
Spokane River and Lake Spokane Pollutant Loading Assessment: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0403006.html.
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