SPOKANE, Wash. – The Spokane River will soon be cleaned of toxic, cancer-causing products called polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs).
A federal judge has approved the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s agreement to issue a mandated cleanup plan for the PCBs polluting the river.
The ruling ends a 10-year legal battle by the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy. They say that when the state of Washington did not act on the issue, the Spokane Tribe of Indians also intervened in support of the lawsuit.
PCBs, which are banned in the U.S, are recognized as probably carcinogenic to humans.
“PCBs are invisible. You can’t see them, smell them, touch them, etc. but they’re there,” explained Kathy Dixon, Secretary of Upper Columbia River Group for the Sierra Club.
According to the Sierra Club, the PCBs in the Spokane River were discharged by five entities: Inland Empire Paper Company, Kaiser Aluminum, as well as the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District, the City of Spokane, and Spokane County wastewater treatment plants.
All five entities have discharge pipes that are permitted by the Washington State Department of Ecology and currently, the state’s pollution permits contain no limits on PCBs flowing into the Spokane River.
Under the consent decree approved Monday, the EPA will complete a “Total Maximum Daily Load” for PCBs within three years.
A TMDL is a science-based approach to clean up polluted water in order to meet state water-quality standards. It is a numerical value that represents the highest amount of a pollutant a surface water body can receive and still meet the standards. The TMDL will change how PCBs are regulated in the Spokane River watershed.
” They will then have to hold these polluters to these levels of pollution,” said Dixon. It will become the policing mechanism.
“We need to get cancer out of the Spokane River,” said Tom Soeldner, a volunteer with the Spokane River Team of the Upper Columbia Group, Sierra Club. “We waited 15 years for Washington’s state government to do its job under the law before filing the lawsuit. After more than a decade in court, this win for the Spokane River means the cleanup plan finally will get done. Now EPA will be responsible for the Spokane River’s PCB cleanup plan.”
“We need clean, flowing water for the return of salmon,” said Dixon.” “Salmon, along with our children and the river’s life are compelling reasons to comply with federal law and move forward with a science-based, river-protecting cleanup plan.”
“A major victory for the river, all the creatures on the river, all the people living near and by the river, all the people that play in the river, fish in the river, it’s a major victory for all of us,” said Dixon. She sees this as an inheritance for her children’s generation, and her grandchildren’s generation.
The cleanup plan is expected to be completed by September 2024.
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