Last week, the City Council voted 5-1 to approve a $175,000 settlement over the City Of Spokane not cleaning up PCB's--a cancer-causing pollutant. The carcinogen finds a way into the fatty tissue of fish and levels are so high in the Spokane River, the Spokane Regional Health District has posted signs along the river bank to educate folks about limiting fish consumption since 1995. Once found in everything from lipstick to cable insulation, PCBs were banned more than 30 years ago because of their health problems. But the toxic compounds are still flowing into the river through storm water runoff. Specifically, an old industrial area along Trent Avenue a strip of warehouses, railroad tracks and fabrication shops called the “Union Basin,” with storm drains contributing the highest levels of PCBs to the river.

A lawsuit was threatened in 2009 by the Center For Justice for violations of the Clean Water Act but the end result was a win-win. “This is one of the rare cases were the city came to the table and said, ‘Let’s talk and figure out a solution,’” says Michael Chappell of the Gonzaga Environmental Law Clinic, in the Inlander.  “There was a lot of back-and-forth and we’ve come up with a process that we think is Step One in reducing the amounts of PCBs.”

 

The settlement pays $125,000 to the Rose Foundation to help fund water-quality improvements, $10,00 for the Spokane River Forum, and $38,000 to Gonzaga's Environmental Law Clinic. The city must fix combined sewer overflow systems that empty into the river to address PCB's.

Now, it might take longer than they think.

Check this report on NPR.

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