Melancholy Waters Flow Through Valley

Ah, the mighty Spokane River.

It is a lovely thing.

It is a part of life in this Valley that I really enjoy.

I inline skate alongside of it quite often on that wonderful trail.

I was doing just that last fall when I saw some folks fishing.

Being of somewhat sound mind, I thought, “Hey, I could bring my pack rod, and inline skate from fishin’ hole to fishin’ hole!”

I held that thought through the winter. But then I read some things in the paper that just plumb ruined my plan.

Have you read the numerous articles over the last few months about that poor river’s condition?

To quote the lovely Mrs. Atwater, “Fishing on the Spokane is no longer in the picture.”

I’m afraid I agree with her.

Yet every summer I see scads of folks frolicking in the waters of the mighty Spokane.

And so to all of you who tube and swim and frolic, I ask:

ARE YOU NUTS?!

Have you read what is in that river?

I swear, we do not need a nuclear reactor on our river to produce sluggish fish with one big old eye in the middle of their fishy foreheads.

No, sir.

We can kill the whole darn river with other stuff, like lead and PCBs and effluent from our sewage treatment facilities.

It is enough to make a grown fish cry.

And yet we keep slidin’ down that river on hot summer days.

Folks, it is time that we did something about this.

I am not a water quality expert, but I have read what the experts said about our river, and there’s no doubt in their minds (or mine, now) that the Spokane is not well.

In river parlance, “not well” is real darn close to “stone dead” and I truly fear that’s where we’re heading.

Now, my purpose is not to cast blame. I have read those articles and I know there is some question as to the source of a lot of this nastiness.

My point is that the time has come for us to take responsibility as a community and DO SOMETHING!

Do we know what Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls are? They are nasty, deadly and they stay in the environment for a long, long time. As do pretty much all the heavy metals and associated by-products.

The wastewater effluent might not be so bad on its own, but in combination with all the other stuff it sounds like a recipe for a kind of Miracle Grow that’s going to produce things we don’t necessarily want growing in our river.

So alright, you say. Exactly what would you have us do, Mr. Rabble-Rouser?

Well, that’s a good question.

To be honest, I’m not sure what the answer is.

But I am sure that we CAN’T continue to do nothing, which seems to me like what we’ve been up to so far.

I’m talking about us, folks - us little guys. The Valley citizens. The Average Joes and Josephines.

The experts and the politicians and the city and county officials need to hear from us.

What we need to do is be sad, mad, outraged, upset, distraught - whatever you want to call it - just so long as we are something other than apathetic.

I don’t know about you, but among my neighbors, co-workers, friends and extended family, there is not a lot of recognition of the problem or a lot of good old fashioned “We’re madder than H-E-Double-Toothpicks and we’re not gonna take it any more” moxie.

THAT’S what we need.

I love the Spokane Valley.

I love the Spokane River.

I don’t want to be the guy who learned that the river was running to ruin and then quietly stood by and did nothing.

Do you?