Spokane River Water Quality Improvement Projects >
Dissolved Oxygen Water Quality Improvement Project
Spokane River Dissolved Oxygen Water Quality Improvement Project
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
The Spokane River flows from its source at Lake Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho to the city of Spokane, Washington. It then flows northwesterly through Lake Spokane and the Spokane
Tribe of Indian’s reservation to its confluence with the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake impoundment of the Columbia River.
The river drains an area of about 6,640 square miles in two
states. Approximately 2,295 square miles are within Washington
with the remainder of the watershed in Idaho.
When
excessive algae blooms and violations of water quality standards
for dissolved oxygen (DO) and phosphorus continued to occur in
Lake Spokane, several segments of the Spokane River
were included on the Department of Ecology’s 1996, 1998 and 2004
303(d) lists of impaired water bodies. The Clean Water Act
requires water bodies listed on the state's 303(d) list to have
a TMDL developed. This site provides information on the DO
water quality improvement project for the Spokane River.
