RIVERS — A federal study released Tuesday found more than 100 toxic substances from everyday life are making their way through wastewater treatment plants into the Columbia River.

What this means, according to details of the report, is that chemicals thoughtless people are pouring down their drains are getting through water treatment plants, into the river — and into the fish sportsmen eat. 

Wonderful.

Read the Seattle Times story.

WILDLIFE — Local birding enthusiast Tim O'Brien of Cheney offered some field observations — and commentary — to expand on a newspaper story about the heavy amounts of rainfall the area is receiving and its affect on the Spokane sewage treatment plant — and the Spokane River.

Birds are influenced by the sewage overflow into the river, and O'Brien lists some of the ways. 

Click “continue reading” for his report to the Inland Northwest Birders.

Hecla Mining Co. has reached a tentative settlement with the federal government, Coeur d’Alene Tribe and state of Idaho over its role in turning the Coeur d’Alene Basin into a Superfund site, company officials said today. Under the proposal, Hecla would pay $263.4 million over the next four years to resolve the company’s financial liability for historic releases of heavy metals into the environment. By April 15, the parties must report on the status of their negotiations in U.S. District Court in Boise. “The opportunity to settlement this litigation is an important milestone for the company,” Phil Baker, Hecla’s chief executive officer, told financial analysts today during a conference call/Becky Kramer, SR. More here.

Question: Are you happy with this tentative agreement?

Remember Livingston. Whatever the outcome of the BNSF Railway Co.’s lawsuit against Kootenai County – in which the railroad argues that the county has no power to make sure it’s not spilling fuel into our drinking water – remember Livingston. Remember Livingston? It’s a great little Montana town, full of artists and writers and good bars and perhaps a touch too much fly-fishing romance, in a valley named Paradise on the road to Yellowstone National Park. And it’s got a Superfund site, where BNSF for years dumped diesel, solvents and asbestos into the soil and water – and then for years wrangled with the state and the people whose health and property it fouled. That’s what things look like on the back end of a big BNSF problem/Shawn Vestal, SR. More here.

Question: Anyone out there willing to say a good word for the railroad?

re: Daily Beast: St. Maries 3rd most polluted

Honest George: Including St. Maries on this list is an example of ‘government gone wild’. The total amount of creosote-laced soil from the old Carney pole site is small in comparision to the total amount leeching from the thousands of piers and bridge pilings spread throughout the Coeur d’Alene Lake, Coeur d’Alene River and St. Joe River. Why isn’t the EPA concerned about them? The pilings that comprised the quarter-mile city levee, constructed by the Corps of Engineers and now replaced by a steel-sheet levee, leaked twice the amount of creosote into the river than what slopped out of the pole soaking-pan of Carney’s pole site.

Question: Does it bother you that much of this region is in a zone that the EPA considers a Superfund site (although a chunk of it doesn’t have that designation)?

This is one of those times when you don’t feel so good about being in the top 5. Inspired, so to speak, by the ever-morphing-but-consistently-disgusting saga of the gulf oil spill, The Daily Beast decided to find America’s most toxic communities. Idaho’s very own St. Maries community ranks third based on a couple of factors and some college-level math. St. Maries sits on the banks of the St. Joe River, renowned for its world-class fishing. Recently, it was discovered that a harmful pollutant had been slowly spilling into the river and surrounding soils for decades. Over 200 tons of contaminated soil had to be removed. Is there good news? Kinda. The private companies responsible just signed a cleanup agreement in February 2010. Could there possibly be more bad news? Yeah. Remember this last legislative session when the state cut all funding for water quality monitoring?/Sara Cohn, Idaho Conservation League. More here. (SR File Photo of couple on water by St. Maries)

Question: Aren’t you proud to have this almost in our back yards?