Reservoir Counsel Seeks Cash

Years of progress toward ending pollution in Lake Roosevelt could go down the drain, say fishermen, county officials and others interested in the big Columbia River reservoir.

They sent a letter Thursday to Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., asking for $100,000 in federal cash to save the Lake Roosevelt Water Quality Council.

The inter-agency council has coordinated research and pressured Canadian industry to stop sending pollutants downstream. It set the stage for a lake management plan, which is out for public comment.

Now, the council is out of money.

“If we don’t do something, we’ve wasted five years of effort,” said George Orr, president of the Spokane Walleye Club.

Orr signed the letter to Nethercutt, as did presidents of the MidColumbia and statewide walleye clubs. Commissioners from Ferry, Stevens and Lincoln counties signed. So did officials from the Inland Empire Fly Fishers, Inland Empire Wildlife Council, and the National Parks and Conservation Association.

Citizens for a Clean Columbia, an environmental group, added its support, along with owners of several businesses: the White Elephant stores, Outdoor Press, Ziegler Building and Supply, and Calkins Manufacturing.

Nethercutt hadn’t seen the letter and wasn’t prepared to comment Thursday. Spokesman Ken Lisaius noted that budget decisions are only “days away.”

The deficit-minded Congress is expected to make big cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency, which funded the water quality council for several years.

The EPA money for Lake Roosevelt ran out in 1994. Then the Colville Confederated Tribes paid for a coordinator, said Scott Hall, who held that job for two years before being laid off in September.

Cutbacks in the Bureau of Indian Affairs have put the squeeze on the Colville tribes, said Hall, and they can no longer pay him.

“The water quality council is essentially defunct for lack of a coordinator,” said Hall. “The issues are still there.”

Gerry Hays, superintendent of the Coulee Dam National Recreation Area, noted that a lot of progress has been made. Most notably, the Cominco Ltd. smelter and Celgar Co. pulp mill both dramatically cut back on pollutants they sent downstream into the lake.

“The water quality has never been that bad and it’s improving. But we need to stay on top of that, particularly if environmental regulations get relaxed as many people think they will be,” Tays said. “We’re already seeing lost momentum.”

Without a coordinator, the management plan aimed at protecting the lake is unlikely to be effective, he said.

It would take $400,000 to fully fund the council in 1996, according to Orr. But $100,000 will pay a coordinator and other expenses needed to keep it going.

“The health of the lake is a key component in the future development of local communities, tourism and recreation,” said the letter to Nethercutt.

, DataTimes