A miniature fisherman in a miniature boat had on his hook a miniature fish. The plastic fisherman sat on a river created out of blue frosting on a cake that read “Celebrate the river.” It was party time. The cake was cut into pieces and people actually hung around to eat it.

Something historic happened Thursday. A group of disparate Spokane River stakeholders signed an agreement that launched a 20-year plan to reduce phosphorus pollution in the Spokane River. The action will not only improve the quality of the Spokane River, but it sets a new standard for civic collaboration.

For more than two years, elected leaders, government workers, environmentalists, as well as industries that discharge waste into the Spokane River, worked together to figure out how to reduce the phosphorus – and increase the dissolved oxygen – in the Spokane River.

Phosphorous feeds algae that steals dissolved oxygen from the river’s fish. The Washington State Department of Ecology had to figure out the maximum amount of phosphorus the river could handle and then make sure that discharges into the river didn’t exceed that maximum. The process is called TMDL, for Total Maximum Dauily Load. Simple translation: A river cleanup plan.

No one was too happy with the first draft of the TMDL, released in late 2004. Dischargers felt the phosphorus limitations were prohibitive. And environmental groups wanted a whole lot less phosphorus in the river. Lawsuits looked inevitable.

And then some people envisioned a different way. They invited all stakeholders to the table. Dave Peeler, Ecology’s water quality manager, and Todd Mielke, Spokane County commissioner, co-chaired the Spokane River TMDL Collaboration. Dozens of men and women met month after month to figure out how to implement a cleanup plan they could all live with. They slogged together through hundreds of documents filled with mind-spinning jargon. They learned from one another, even though they often had vastly different views of the river’s purpose.

“When we started, we were basically adversaries,” Mielke said. “It forced a dialogue.”

Thursday, the group spawned a follow-up group, the Spokane River TMDL Oversight Committee, which will continue this collaboration for 20 years.

Peeler gives talks throughout the country on this unique TMDL collaboration; it’s one of the first of its kind nationally.

The river stakeholders collaborated far from the limelight, because this river issue is too complex for sound bites or snappy headlines. Only one television station showed up for the historic signing, but no one seemed to mind. They celebrated anyway – and deservedly so.