In response to The Spokesman-Review’s June 8 front-page article on Inland Empire Paper’s (IEP) trouble reaching water quality goals, we want to assure your readers that the Department of Ecology is well aware of its own rules and we will make sure they are met in the Spokane River.

State and federal rules require that the Spokane River meet a number of water quality standards established to protect people, fish and wildlife, and the environment. Too much phosphorus is driving dissolved oxygen levels so low that they violate our state’s water quality standards, threaten several species of fish, and cause profuse weed and algae growth in Lake Spokane. Our rules require steady progress toward compliance with applicable standards.

We have worked closely for years with dischargers, environmental organizations and many others in the community to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce phosphorus in the river. We did it this way because Ecology recognized that the limits on phosphorus will be difficult to achieve because of the limits of current technology. We don’t want this difficult challenge to put anyone out of business or cause undue hardship on the community.

We chose to work with the community to find solutions rather than to simply impose the daunting restrictions on the four governments and businesses that discharge phosphorus to the Spokane River. One reason is that the advanced technology to remove phosphorus from wastewater is new and in some cases untested.

It is also very expensive.

Because of this uncertainty and cost, our plan includes a great deal of extra water quality monitoring. The plan also requires reductions in more diffuse “non-point” sources of phosphorus. We built some flexibility into the plan to give the community and Ecology time to study the results of all of these efforts to ensure that we move quickly enough toward the ultimate goal. If not, we would change course to make sure we get there.

With this plan, the greater Spokane community will be a nationwide leader in managing nutrient pollution problems. Spokane is one of the first areas to face this challenge. This special circumstance was worthy of additional time and flexibility while we helped the dischargers work out any kinks in the new pollution-control equipment.

The Spokane River dissolved oxygen plan always has been a 20-year plan. Compliance with the dissolved oxygen standard is expected in the initial 10 years. This is written into the Foundational Concepts that were forged during a two-year communitywide collaboration.

Over the first 10 years, if the dischargers take all of the actions required by the plan (as they agreed to), it is very likely that the dissolved oxygen standard will be met. In the unlikely event it is not, we will work with the dischargers and the community at large to finish the job. The Foundational Concepts agreement reserves as backup an additional 10 years if needed.

Inland Empire Paper is a valuable part of the community and a discharger of phosphorus to the Spokane River. We have attempted to strike a balance between making timely progress in restoring the Spokane River and providing a viable path forward for the company. We have done our best in this regard. The additional time IEP would like to have will be available only if the company takes all of the actions required of it in the plan and the dissolved oxygen standard remains unmet.

Yes, we do know our own rules, of course. We have used our understanding of these rules to build a plan that will bring the Spokane River back into compliance with dissolved oxygen standards and do so in a manner that recognizes the technical and legal realities.

No plan is perfect. It would be great if it didn’t take 10 years to meet water quality standards. It would be even better if it were cheap and easy to do so. But, we at Ecology continue to believe that our negotiated plan is the best way to restore the health of the Spokane River – a difficult, but so worthwhile objective.