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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Becky Kramer

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News >  Idaho

Private cabins, public area

KETTLE FALLS, Wash. – On misty mornings, Eric Weatherman watches river otters frolick in Lake Roosevelt from his front deck. “They look just like dolphins,” says the 45-year-old tugboat operator.
News >  Idaho

UI pronghorn antelope expert gets $600,000 grant

Pronghorn antelope are the fastest animals in North America, accelerating from zero to 40 mph in seconds. The speed in their long delicate legs is an adaptation from a pre-Ice Age existence, when they had to outrun fierce predators that roamed the grasslands – lions bigger than those on the African Savannah, American cheetahs, wild dogs and fleet-footed bears.
News >  Idaho

Pollution pipeline

LIBERTY LAKE – Arianne Fernandez donned elbow-length rubber gloves, a plastic apron and a splash-protection face mask before lowering a collection jar into a manhole. The cloudy water she brought up came from Liberty Lake’s sewer system.
News >  Idaho

Bluegrass burning begins

The annual torching of bluegrass fields has begun in North Idaho. Farmers set fire to 140 acres on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation on Monday – the first of about 35,000 acres of bluegrass that will be burned on the reservation this year.
News >  Business

Avista to trim Idaho price hikes

Avista Corp. has agreed to trim its request for higher electric and natural gas rates in Idaho. Under a settlement worked out with several parties, the utility will accept an electricity rate hike of 11.98 percent, down from the 15.9 percent requested earlier this year.
News >  Idaho

Study of aquifer looks at the future

When scientists undertake a $3 million study of the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, they’ll examine how climate change could affect the drinking water supply for more than 500,000 residents. “It’s an inexact science to be sure, from the standpoint of looking at the future availability of water,” said Hal Anderson, an administrator for the Idaho Department of Water Resources. “The main change we anticipate with warmer weather is the runoff coming sooner.”
News >  Idaho

Avista starts dredging river behind Monroe dam

Avista Corp. is using heavy equipment to scoop rocks and gravel from behind the Monroe Street Dam in downtown Spokane. Company officials say the work, which began Wednesday, is a routine procedure to keep rocks out of the dam’s intake areas. But the action is drawing fire from Rachael Paschal Osborn, the Sierra Club’s Spokane River coordinator, who says the work may be stirring up PCBs, heavy metals and other toxic materials deposited behind the dam.
News >  Spokane

Rival buys Priest River mill

JD Lumber Inc. is selling its sawmill in Priest River to competitor Riley Creek Lumber Co., creating uncertainty about the future of 216 jobs in the North Idaho mill town. Employees were notified of the sale late Friday afternoon. The mill in Bonner County will close at the end of September, and it’s unclear whether the new owners will reopen it.
News >  Idaho

Water quality remains issue on Spokane River

Getting tangled in water lilies is a hazard of kayaking at Long Lake. The reservoir’s upper end sports a luxuriant growth, and as I paddled I periodically flung tendrils of vegetation at my kayak partner. The graceful white flowers signal trouble in the lake. They’re fertilized by 66 million gallons of wastewater that flow daily into the Spokane River.
News >  Idaho

Blue ribbon provider of energy also offers fresh view of downtown Spokane

Mike Aho refers to the stretch of the Spokane River below Upriver Dam as “urban wilderness.” Thick screens of willows and cottonwoods shield paddlers from views of rendering plants, railroad yards and congested arterials, but there’s no masking the ranker smells of the city’s industrial core, or the rumble of overhead traffic as you pass beneath bridges.
News >  Idaho

Fish from river carry toxic risk

Armed with a clipboard and “How to Skin a Fish” handouts, Sean Hackett approached a woman and her baby daughter as they played on a sandy beach at Peoples Park. Hackett, an intern for The Lands Council, introduced himself, and started asking questions.
News >  Idaho

White water in the heart of Spokane

‘Listen,” said our rafting guide, “that’s the Devil’s Toenail.” The rapids were still out of sight, around a bend in the Spokane River. But we could hear the chaotic crash and churn of the water echoing from the canyon’s walls.
News >  Idaho

Afloat over – and in – the aquifer

About 10,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods laid the bedrock for the region’s water supply. An ice sheet crept across the Idaho Panhandle, damming the Clark Fork River and creating glacial Lake Missoula, which extended 200 miles to the east. The ice dam failed repeatedly, sending water, ice and house-size boulders roaring through the Columbia Basin.
News >  Spokane

Spokane River paddlers note thick development, landscaping practices

Ross Walkinshaw feels fortunate that his view hasn’t changed since 1947, when his parents bought 80 acres on the south side of the Spokane River. From his boat dock, Walkinshaw still sees a wall of towering pine trees on the opposite bank. “That’s the Post Falls Kiwanis Park,” he said last week, pointing to a sandy beach where kids were playing. “And that’s the Ross Point Baptist Camp.”
News >  Idaho

Spokane River reflecting a new image

Don’t go down to the river. Generations of local kids heard that warning. Parents didn’t want their children playing on the Spokane River’s polluted banks. Chris Donley’s dad was one of them.
News >  Idaho

Avista’s river-use conditions challenged

Avista Corp. should do more to protect the Spokane River in return for harnessing its water for hydropower generation, two environmental groups say. The Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy filed an appeal Tuesday with Washington's Pollution Control Hearings Board, saying the state was too lax in issuing conditions for operation of four Avista dams on the Washington side of the 111-mile river.
News >  Business

Avista subsidiary buys Ohio business

Advantage IQ, a subsidiary of Avista Corp. that manages energy use and other utilities for corporate clients, has bought a competitor in Cincinnati. Shareholders of privately held Cadence Network will receive a 25 percent minority stake in Advantage IQ. Together, the combined firms will have annual sales of about $62 million, serving more than 500 customers at hundreds of thousands of sites across the U.S. and Canada, officials said.
News >  Idaho

Plan aims to protect lake

At the bottom of Lake Coeur d'Alene, divers frequently encounter iridescent colors in the mud – glowing reds and oranges that point to the presence of iron oxide. These are the lake's toxic hot spots. A century of mining pollution from Idaho's Silver Valley bonded to the iron oxide and washed into the lake, creating deposits of lead, zinc, cadmium and arsenic.
News >  Idaho

Greenhouse gases up sharply in Idaho

Idaho's greenhouse gas emissions grew by 31 percent from 1990 to 2005, nearly twice as fast as the national average, according to the Gem State's first comprehensive look at its contribution to global warming. Rapid population growth, a thriving economy and Idahoans' high per-capita consumption of electricity and gasoline led to the sharp increase.
News >  Spokane

Avista offers recycle reward

Avista Utilities is launching a refrigerator recycling program for its Washington and Idaho electric customers. Customers will receive a $30 rebate when they replace pre-1995 refrigerators or freezers. The older appliances can use up to 1,500 kilowatt-hours annually – about three times as much as newer models, Avista said.
News >  Idaho

Firm sells Venezuelan gold mine

Hecla Mining Co. is selling its Venezuelan gold properties for $25 million. The Coeur d'Alene firm's decision to sell was prompted by rising costs at its Venezuelan mines, as well as investors' concerns about President Hugo Chavez's leftist government.
News >  Idaho

Montana sued over Rock Creek mine

Four environmental groups have sued the state of Montana over pre-development work at the Rock Creek Mine, saying erosion from the construction activity will silt-up habitat for federally protected bull trout. The stormwater permit issued by the state "really applies to fairly benign construction projects," said Karen Knudsen, executive director for the Clark Fork Coalition, one of the groups involved in the suit. "We don't think that a huge copper-silver mine that will drill into the heart of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness really fits the bill."
News >  Idaho

Avista must maintain flow of at least 300 cfs during summer

Water will cascade more lavishly over the Spokane River's waterfalls in years to come. Even during dry years, at least 300 cubic feet of water a second will flow over the north channel of Upper Falls Dam in downtown Spokane, the Washington Department of Ecology announced Tuesday. The flows – equivalent to about 2,250 gallons per second – are required from 10 a.m. to a half-hour after sunset from Memorial Day through the end of September. In the past, the channel dried up completely during hot summers when the water was diverted through the dam's powerhouse for electric generation.