Spokane River PCBs Await Litigation
PCBs pollute Washington’s waters. From the Duwamish to the Spokane, this group of industrial compounds associated with liver dysfunction and cancer is a risk to human life and wildlife. PCB manufacture is now banned in the U.S. EPA and Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) should be prompt in developing cleanup plans to protect the public interest. They are not – raising troubling questions.
When water is polluted, the federal Clean Water Act requires the U.S. Environmental Proetction Agency (EPA) or its state designee to create a cleanup plan called a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL. EPA’s designee is the Washington State Department of Ecology. Ecology recognizes that the Spokane River (like the Duwamish) is severely polluted with PCBs.
The Clean Water Act also prohibits addition of more pollution to a river if a TMDL is not in place. If there is no room to add new pollution, then no new permits.
Spokane County wants to add a new sewage treatment plant pipe into the Spokane River. Seven years ago Sierra Club volunteer leaders warned that the County could not get a permit without a PCB TMDL.
The law was ignored. State officials directed massive public funds to build the County’s sewage plant. Public employees who blew the whistle were forced out or quit. The county public works director announced he would privatize the new treatment plant by giving a design-build-operate contract to CH2MHill, the same company where he worked for 17 years.
This fall, Spokane County will christen its new $178 million dollar facility, a boondoggle without a discharge permit. The County must now move to zero discharge operations. Absurdly, if the plant does not open on time, the DBO contractor will “fine” the public for lost revenue.
In defense of the River, on July 18 Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP) filed a 60-day notice directed to the U.S. EPA for failure to require Ecology to prepare a PCB cleanup plan in the Spokane River. A decision whether to litigate is now pending with the Chapter. The Club is represented by Clean Water Act specialist Richard Smith of the Seattle-based law firm Smith & Lowney.
by John Osborn, M.D.
For more on Sierra Club volunteers efforts to protect Washington rivers, visit the Water and Salmon Committee page.
