Plan presented to reduce phosphorus in Spokane River

The Spokane River will be healthier if a new plan to reduce phosphorus pollution is approved, state officials told local leaders at a meeting Thursday.

Phosphorus reduction will help lead to the restoration of “one of the crown jewels of Washington state,” said Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology.

Long Lake, a dammed portion of the Spokane River, violates state environmental standards because it has a lack of dissolved oxygen that is needed to support fish. Algae growth, which is promoted by phosphorus, causes oxygen to be depleted from the water.

On Thursday, those who created the phosphorus reduction plan presented it to City Council members representing locations where wastewater enters the Spokane River. They will be asked to sign on to the plan in the coming weeks.

The plan will require river polluters in Spokane County, including sewage treatment plants, Kaiser Aluminum and Inland Empire Paper, to try to reduce phosphorus in treated wastewater to natural levels. For each liter of water released, dischargers would only be able to release 10 micrograms (100,000 times smaller than one gram) of phosphorus. Inland Empire Paper is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Dischargers will have 20 years to meet the standard. However, the goal could be changed in 10 years if it’s deemed unobtainable.

Spokane Councilman Bob Apple said if any phosphorus pollution remains in Long Lake in 10 years, the plan would unfairly target Spokane.

“They’ll come right after us,” Apple said. “I don’t have a doubt in my mind.”

Councilwoman Mary Verner said Apple’s concerns appear to rise from a misunderstanding. She said she’s confident the plan is fair.

The sewage treatment plant run by Spokane releases about 730 micrograms of phosphorus per liter. The city plans to install $130 million worth of technology by 2013 that will cut phosphorous emissions to about 70 micrograms, said Dale Arnold, director of wastewater management.

If dischargers can’t meet the 10 microgram standard through technology improvements, as city and county leaders expect, they can make up the difference by reducing phosphorus in other ways. For instance, the city plans to divert treated wastewater to irrigate golf courses to prevent it from directly entering the river.

Environmental groups are split on their support for the plan.

“We’re hoping that the momentum from this plan will take us forward on other issues on the river,” said Amber Waldref, the Lands Council’s water watch coordinator.

But Rachael Paschal Osborn, a Sierra Club attorney, said polluters may not try as hard to clean the river because the standard could be weakened in a decade. She also was critical of Spokane officials, who have said repeatedly that the city is unlikely to meet the goal.

“We have to go to the next level and there’s this resistance,” Osborn said. “It would be great to see the city say, ‘We can do this. It is our obligation to the community.’ “

City leaders said they don’t want to stick ratepayers with astronomically high bills for cleanup that is virtually impossible to obtain.

“The city of Spokane is, by this agreement, appropriately committed to resolving the phosphorus and pollution problem in the river,” said Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession. “We’re concerned that it can’t be accomplished but feel the agreement has the appropriate flexibility.”

Verner said city action will allay the Sierra Club’s fears.

“The package that we’re looking at now is to do our best to meet the standard, not to change it.”