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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Oct. 14, 1998
98-178
Contact: Jani Gilbert, Public Information Manager, (509) 456-4464; pager, (509) 622-1289
SPOKANE - A plan to control future pollution from entering Washington's portion of the Spokane River will be discussed at a public meeting being held Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1998, from 6-9 p.m. at the Department of Ecology's eastern regional office, 4601 N. Monroe St. in Spokane.
The water cleanup plan, sometimes called a total maximum daily load (TMDL), spells out the maximum limits on the amount of pollutants that can be discharged to the river and still allow the river to meet the state's water-quality standards.
"The Spokane River metals plan will be a departure from most other plans," said Carl Nuechterlein, Ecology's water-quality supervisor in Eastern Washington. "The river already violates water quality standards for some metals because of past mining practices in Idaho, so we had to approach it a little differently so that Washington isn't penalized."
Surface waters, such as lakes and rivers, can assimilate pollutants to some extent through a natural process of self-purification. The amount of pollutants that a body of water can assimilate without violating state water-quality standards is called "loading capacity."
Water-quality cleanup plans are usually equal to a water body's loading capacity, with a safety margin to allow for error and pollutants from unknown sources.
Once set, the Department of Ecology (Ecology) divides the load among the various industrial and municipal dischargers along the river. The Spokane River cleanup plan gives industries and municipalities along the river a "waste load allocation," identifying the maximum concentration of each pollutant they can discharge without causing the river to violate water quality standards.
The goal of the metals-cleanup plan is to allow the dischargers to continue operating, but to reduce the amount of lead, cadmium and zinc being released into the Spokane River so it can come back into compliance with water quality standards. The plan also will ensure that the dischargers are not adding to the problem of metals in the river.
The Spokane River regularly violates water quality standards for zinc, lead and cadmium due to past mining practices in Idaho's Silver Valley. The concentrations of these metals are about 10 to 100 times above concentrations in other major rivers that Ecology monitors.
"This plan is different because it makes the assumption that water quality standards are being met at the Idaho-Washington border," Nuechterlein explained. "We know most of the metals in the river are coming from Idaho. We can't very well penalize Washington industries and municipalities along the river by not allowing them to discharge any metals at all."
The ultimate success and appropriateness of this document depends solely on whether Idaho develops and implements an effective plan to meet Washington's water-quality standards at the Idaho-Washington border, Nuechterlein said.
The Department of Ecology is encouraging affected dischargers, local governments and other interested citizens to comment on the Spokane River plan. Copies of the report are available for review at the Spokane County Valley Branch and Spokane City Downtown Branch libraries until Nov. 31, 1998; at Ecology's Eastern Regional Office; and at Kinko's on North Division in Spokane.
The name of the report is Cadmium, Lead and Zinc in the Spokane River-Recommendations for Total Maximum Daily Loads and Waste Load Allocations. All comments must be submitted in writing and addressed to Department of Ecology, Attn: Ken Merrill, Eastern Regional Office, 4601 N. Monroe, Spokane, WA, 99205-1295. Comments will be accepted until Nov. 27, 1998.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
