- authorized to pump more
than 620 million gallons per day from the
aquifer, a figure that exceeds the river's
recent daily flow during summer
- carelessly deeded water
to cities, farmers and industry without
adequately assessing ecological impacts on the
river
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Spokane
River
America's Most
Endangered Rivers of 2004 (left to
right)
- Snake River (#3),
Ingredients include: hot water, chopped up
salmon, invasive predators;
- Tennessee River
(#4), Ingredients include: water, sewage, E.
coli, dysentery, hepatitis,
cryptosporidium;
- Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers (#5), Ingredients include:
water, acid, iron, aluminum,
manganese;
- Colorado River (#1),
Ingredients include: water, uranium, nitrates,
ammonium perchlorate, ammonia;
- Peace River (#8),
Ingredients include: water, clay, uranium,
radium;
- Housatonic River
(#7), Ingredients include: water,
PCBs;
- Big Sunflower River
(#2), Ingredients include: water, DDT,
toxaphene;
- Spokane River (#6),
Ingredients include: water, sewage, PCBs, lead,
arsenic, zinc, and cadmium;
- Mississippi River
(#10), Ingredients include: water, sediment,
nutrients, pesticides;
- Big Darby Creek
(#9), Ingredients may soon include: stormwater,
trash, sediment, fertilizer, automotive fluids
Read
the April 14 news
release
American Rivers • Sierra Club • The
Lands Council • Idaho Conservation
League
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- sewage utilities are
seeking exemptions from regulations
- form the Spokane River
Regional Sewer Authority: to effectively resolve
the environmental issues
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About America's most
endangered rivers
On April 14th the Spokane
River was recognized as the 6th most endangered
river in America.
Each year since 1986,
American Rivers and its partners in the river
movement have released the America's Most
Endangered Rivers report to highlight rivers
nationwide reaching crucial crossroads. The report
highlights acute threats rather than chronic
conditions; it is not a list of the nation's
"worst" or most polluted rivers.
American Rivers solicits
nominations annually from thousands of river
groups, conservation organizations, outdoor clubs,
and individual activists. Our staff and scientific
advisors review the nominations for the following
criteria:
- The magnitude of the
threat to the river
- A major decision point
in the coming year affecting that
threat
- The regional and
national significance of the river
This report
does more than list problems; it highlights
alternatives and solutions, identifies those who
will make the crucial decisions, and points out
opportunities for the public to take action on
behalf of each listed river. America's Most
Endangered Rivers has a distinguished track record
of improved public policy decisions that benefit
listed rivers.
Recognizing that the
threats facing the listed rivers are seldom unique,
each report includes a special chapter that
explores a broader issue suggested by the rivers on
the list that year. This year's report explores how
new loopholes and lax enforcement of clean water
laws will accelerate the trend towards more
polluted rivers nationwide.
American Rivers, founded in
1973, is the leader of a nationwide river
conservation movement.
American Rivers is
dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy
natural rivers, and the variety of life they
sustain, for the benefit of people, fish and
wildlife.
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America's most endangered
rivers
#6 Spokane
River
TOO LITTLE WATER, TOO
MUCH POLLUTION, AND AN UNCERTAIN
FUTURE
Summary
More pollution concentrated in less
water will be the future of the Spokane River unless new
groundwater withdrawal applications are rejected, sewage
plants meet stringent water quality standards, and mine
waste is cleaned up.
The River
The Spokane River flows from Lake
Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho approximately 90 miles
northwest through Spokane, Wash., before emptying into the
Columbia River above Grand Coulee Dam. Much of the river's
flows, particularly during summer, come from underground
springs fed by the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer. The importance
of this aquifer to the river and the region is hard to
overstate. It also provides drinking water to 400,000 people
in the Spokane area, and is liberally pumped by irrigators
in Idaho, and industrial and municipal users in
Washington.
For 10,000 years, native peoples
gathered at a magnificent set of falls and rapids to catch
salmon and trade with their neighbors. In the 1870s, the
river's abundant water and energy potential attracted new
settlers to this spot. Today, the Spokane River is a vital
part of the quality of life in its namesake city, offering
riverfront trails and parks, a prized trout fishery,
whitewater recreation and dramatic, natural
scenery.
The Risk
Spokane Falls, the city's signature
natural feature, sputters and runs dry most summers, a
consequence of over-pumping the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer,
the operations of Avista Corporation's Post Falls Dam, and
diverting the river above the falls to Avista's Spokane
power plant.
Every gallon pumped out of the
Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer is one less gallon that reaches the
river. Water users are authorized to pump more than 620
million gallons per day from the aquifer, a figure that
exceeds the river's recent daily flow during
summer.
State agencies in Idaho and
Washington that manage the aquifer have carelessly deeded
water to cities, farmers and industry without adequately
assessing ecological impacts on the river. This generosity
has fueled wasteful habits, per capita water use in the
region is among the highest in the nation.
The Spokane River: Too
little water, too much pollution, and an uncertain
future
Shrinking river flows exacerbate
another serious problem: five sewage treatment plants
discharge into the river. Low flows concentrate the
wastewater discharges, making it difficult for utilities to
avoid violating water quality standards. Rather than upgrade
their facilities, these utilities are seeking exemptions
from regulations.
The final insult to the Spokane
River is toxic pollution flowing from the area around Lake
Coeur d'Alene. Former mining and lead smelting operations
there have contaminated the river with heavy metals,
including lead, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium that cause health
problems, including brain and nerve damage in children. High
pollution levels have prompted fish consumption warnings in
Washington. In 1999, the Spokane River carried mine waste
including 400 tons of lead and other metals and arsenic to
the Columbia River.
In 2002, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Superfund cleanup plan for
the Spokane River-Lake Coeur d'Alene basin. The contaminated
lake, the river's source, is not in the plan. The Bush
administration transferred effective control of the cleanup
to Idaho, which opposes the designation and the cleanup
because of costs, opposition by mining interests, and
because local business leaders fear negative publicity for
the area's real estate and tourism industry centered on Lake
Coeur d'Alene. Continued funding is in doubt due to
shortfalls in the federal Superfund program that is supposed
to help pay for the project.
The 12-Month Outlook
Idaho and Washington are determining
future pumping levels for the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer, and
will release final plans in 2004. Simultaneously, the states
are working with the U.S. Geological Survey to study the
aquifer and river. The states should enact a moratorium on
new aquifer pumping until the study is concluded, and
include stringent conservation provisions in forthcoming
aquifer management plans.
The Washington Department of Ecology
will issue a river cleanup plan in 2004, establishing
standards to address low oxygen levels in the river. At the
same time, the Bush administration has signaled that it may
greatly reduce the federal role in this important Clean
Water Act program. Washington state and the federal
government should continue to work together to reduce
polluted runoff in the Spokane River.
Spokane River sewage dischargers are
seeking exemptions from water quality standards that protect
spawning conditions for trout. Their tool to accomplish this
is a Clean Water Act provision called "use attainability
analysis." If accepted, the exemptions will allow sewage to
be dumped more liberally, and trout survival is less likely.
Public hearings about the exemption requests will be held in
late 2004 and in 2005. The Washington Department of Ecology
and the federal EPA must reject these requests from sewage
dischargers.
In the 2004 session of Congress,
lawmakers should reinstate the Superfund Tax on oil and
chemicals that provides funds to clean up toxic sites like
the Spokane River. This "polluter pays" funding source
expired in 1995, leading to the current funding crisis for
the program. Despite opposition from President Bush,
Congress should reauthorize the tax to ensure that cleanup
of the Spokane River and other sites nationwide goes forward
and polluters rather than taxpayers pay for
cleanup.
View the full report
here.
Yes, We Need a Regional Water
Quality Authority
Lessons for the Spokane River
from Lake Washington
by John Osborn, MD
Here's the problem: 400,000 people
flush sewage effluent into the Spokane River. The river
receives more'"nutrients" and ammonia and phosphorous than
it can handle. Oxygen in the water needed by fish to breathe
is depleted. Low concentrations of dissolved oxygen harm or
kill fish, and risk algae blooms, from the state line to
Lake Spokane (Long Lake).
The river's capacity for handling
sewage is already over the limits and municipal and
industrial polluters are going to have to ratchet back on
their existing discharges. Yet Liberty Lake and others
propose to increase their effluent under cover of the
Department of Ecology's expired pollution
permits.
This problem will worsen as the
river is dewatered by Aquifer overpumping, water impoundment
behind Post Falls Dam, and run-away growth and development
from Coeur d'Alene to Spokane.
Five sewage treatment
plants along the Spokane River
are seeking exemptions from clean water
standards.
To save the Spokane River we need to
tackle the problem on a regional basis, reduce discharges to
the river, and find alternatives for treating our sewage.
Frankly, it costs money to treat our sewage. It costs money
to have a clean river -- not a sewer -- flowing through our
community.
Right now five different treatment
plants are discharging to the River, with a sixth on the
way. We don't see the "brown trout" and toilet paper from
the days of raw sewage discharges, but river-killing
nutrients are in the water.
Where are we with finding a regional
solution? The Spokane River has a limited capacity for
sewage, yet our governments, from local to federal, are
fighting with each other about how to divide up a "shrinking
pie", rather than organizing a collective
solution:
- Washington is fighting with
Idaho.
- The City of Spokane is fighting
with Spokane County.
- The City of Spokane Valley is
thinking about fighting with Spokane County.
- Liberty Lake is fighting with
itself.
- The polluters (including
individual sewer districts, municipalities, and
industrial facilities) are fighting with the
state.
- Governor Locke and his
Department of Ecology are fighting with EPA.
All of this fighting is costing
taxpayers and is driving fracture lines through our
community.
It's time for a new model, a new way
of thinking about sewage and the Spokane River. What can we
learn from experiences elsewhere?
In the 1960s, Lake Washington in
western Washington suffered from too much sewage pollution.
The cities surrounding the Lake realized that a regional fix
was needed. They formed a cooperative sewer district, and
built two treatment plants to serve the entire region and
get the sewage out of the Lake.
Saving Lake Washington is a classic
case study in saving a water body. Lake Washington became an
engine of economic growth and civic pride.
It's time for us to do the same
here. It's time to form the Spokane River Regional Sewer
Authority: stop fighting, and face the environmental
problems created by growth.
For sewage and the Spokane River, we
need to think regionally and develop cooperative
sewage-treatment remedies. Does it make sense investing
public monies at Liberty Lake, Post Falls, or the City of
Spokane -- or is there a more efficient and cost effective
regional remedy?
This year our community will
celebrate the 30th anniversary of Expo '74, the first
world's fair to trumpet an environmental message. The
community and its leaders invited the world here to the
banks of the Spokane River. Let's mark that transforming
event by re-dedicating ourselves to saving the Spokane
River.
John Osborn is a physician and
conservationist. He volunteers as the conservation chair for
the Sierra Club's Upper Columbia River Group.
The News
Conference
Spokane Falls, site of the
release of the America's Most Endangered Rivers
Report, April 14
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John Osborn, Sierra Club.
Spokane faces a choice: "near nature, near perfect"
-- or "will a sewer run through it"?
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Chase Davis, Sierra
Club.
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Deb Abrahamson and Merle,
Spokane Tribal Elder.
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Tribal members and Sierra
Club member talk about the past and future of the
Spokane River.
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Deb Abrahamson, SHAWL
(Saving Our Health Air Water and Land) and Spokane
Tribal activist.
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Ross Freeman, American
Rivers, explaining Spokane River problems to
reporters.
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