A Spokane-based environmental group has launched a public awareness campaign on the dangers of heavy metals pollution and what can be done about it.

Last weekend, volunteers for the Inland Empire Public Lands Council delivered 10,000 videos to people living near the Spokane River in Washington.

The video and outreach campaign were paid for with a $38,500 public participation grant from the Washington Department of Ecology. The money comes from license fees collected under Washington’s tough toxic cleanup laws.

The 165 billion pounds of heavy metal-contaminated sediments in Lake Coeur d’Alene “are a threat we cannot ignore,” said Mark Solomon, the council’s executive director.

Lead in the mine wastes is most dangerous to children, said Dr. Marilyn Ream, a family physician and immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group taking part in the outreach effort.

“Fresh and drying mud that floodwaters leave behind in our watershed is the greatest source of exposure,” Ream said. , DataTimes