Workshop to focus on river quality

A new state proposal to protect dissolved oxygen in the Spokane River will be discussed tonight at a workshop at Spokane Falls Community College.

The Washington Department of Ecology will introduce its draft water quality cleanup plan for the river, which is stressed by low oxygen and a variety of pollutants, including heavy metals from historic mining practices in Idaho, sewage effluent from Idaho and Washington and toxic PCBs from industrial dischargers in Washington state.

The cleanup plan, called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), sets discharge limits for the pollutants that deplete oxygen in the river, including phosphorus and other organic materials that promote algae growth.

Sources of pollutants include industries and cities along the river and polluted runoff from fertilizers, farm animals and failing septic systems.

Polluted runoff from the river’s tributaries, including Latah Creek, also adds to the problem.

The plan to reduce phosphorus would require major changes for many river dischargers, said Jim Bellatty, the Ecology Department’s water quality program manager in Spokane.

To solve the problem and protect fish, oxygen-depleting pollutants would need to be nearly entirely eliminated from April through October, according to the department’s plan.

The agency has used a computer model developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Portland State University to model water quality in the river.

The public will have a chance to ask questions at tonight’s workshop, which will begin at 6 p.m. in SFCC’s Student Union Building, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Drive.