New Gonzaga Environmental Law Clinic Website on PCB Pollution: https://spokaneriverpcbs.org/
Check out this fascinating website recently posted by the Gonzaga Environmental Law Clinic. Short videos provide various perspectives that connect the dots and make sense of the long struggle for a clean Spokane River.
The focus is PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a carcinogenic toxic chemical that is polluting our Spokane River and accumulating in the river's fish. In fact, the Spokane River currently exceeds State Water Quality Standards (WQS) for PCBs, and the Department of Health has recommended limits on how many fish can be safely consumed from the river. The Washington Department of Ecology and EPA has sanctioned a Spokane River Regional Task Force (SRRTTF) to clean up the Spokane River. Once thought to be a “collaborative” effort, the SRRTTF now appears to have become a something of a “greenwash” filled with endless studies and delay without deliverables. The voting membership of the SRRTTF is made up primarily of pollution dischargers (polluters) who are now largely in control of the way in which the river clean-up activities should look and by extension, how much attention should be placed on their own pollution discharges. In fact, some of those on the SRRTTF had real influence in the actual roll-back of toxic pollution limits during the last administration. The SRRTTF has now put the polluters in the driver's seat of defining the terms of how pollution (including their own) is addressed in your Spokane River. A classic “foxes in charge of the hen house” scenario - and this time, the chickens are yours.
Much of this story stems from costly upgrades dischargers fear may be required if forced to address PCB pollution with real, numerical pollution limits. A plan that with these limits (called a Total Maximum Daily Load) would require pollution limits on the PCB pollution at the end of their pipes and provide a total limit for PCB pollution in the River. In the history of cleaning up our rivers, these kinds of plans force the development of new technologies and innovative efforts to remove pollution and discharges from the river. The Spokane River Dissolved Oxygen Plan is a case in point. Over the last decade, a tight plan backed up with regulatory oversight resulted in next level treatment (high-tech filtration) for phosphorus. As a result our river is much cleaner.
This website provides resources that you, the public, can use to get a broad overview of the issues or take a dive deep into the weeds of this complex issue. The site documents the 10 year legal challenge that has been underway between Sierra Club, Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the EPA as well as other aspects of this complex issue.
With the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act coming up in 2022, defending our river and saying “no” to greenwashing in the name of collaboration could not be more important. Developing real (legal) Clean Water Act, clean up plans with pollution limits will result in real pollution clean up.
The Spokane Riverkeeper is not affiliated with this website in any way, but we applaud the Gonzaga Law Clinic’s thorough and interesting look at the long and complex history of addressing PCBs. We certainly hope you find it interesting.
Find this new website here: https://spokaneriverpcbs.org/