Spokane Riverkeeper, environmental groups react with “deep disappointment” to EPA’s final PCB TMDL for Spokane River

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) amounts for cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Spokane River and Little Spokane River – a report that EPA committed to produce in the legal settlement with the Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River Group, the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.

It is almost 13 years to the day since the lawsuit was filed.

However, according to a press release, these environmental groups, together with Spokane Riverkeeper, are reacting with deep disappointment that EPA’s final plan will not sufficiently reduce PCB levels in the river.

"We now have a clean-up plan 13 years after we filed legal action," said Erin D. Dascher with Sierra Club's Spokane River Team in a press release. "The price of a clean, flowing Spokane River is constant vigilance in implementing the PCB TMDL."

A TMDL is a science-based pollution cleanup plan that is supposed to be designed to ensure the Spokane River meets water quality standards. PCBs were once widely used in a variety of industrial applications, from electrical insulators to paints. PCBs were used because they are fire-resistant, stable, and have electrical insulating properties. There are over 200 different chemical compounds in the PCB family, known as PCB congeners, making them difficult to test for.

Today, these long-lived pollutants are recognized for their serious health impacts, including increased cancer risk, immune system impairment, and developmental harm to fetuses. PCBs are especially toxic in extremely small quantities and persist in the environment for decades, moving up the food chain and accumulating in fish and wildlife.

PCBs have long been a significant health problem in the Spokane River. In 2011, with the Spokane Tribe of Indians joining as an intervenor, the Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River Group and CELP sued the EPA seeking a federal court order requiring the agency to take definitive action after years of delay by state and local health agencies.

In November of 2021, EPA agreed to the settlement requiring the issuance of a TMDL for Spokane River PCBs by September 30, 2024, and was subsequently granted a 30-day extension to issue the TMDL. Though the EPA has met the October 30th deadline, the environmental groups that led the legal challenges believe the final TMDL fails to address critical concerns about the monitoring and analysis of PCB contamination, including the following:

• Despite the groups’ recommendations, the plan continues to focus narrowly on water column sampling and does not expand its scope to include adequate data on PCB levels in river sediments or fish tissues. This limited approach overlooks key factors in understanding PCB contamination and its risks to human health and the environment.
• The decision to continue using outdated monitoring methods, like EPA Method 8082, is particularly troubling. This method is not sensitive enough to detect the low PCB concentrations required to ensure that the river is safe for fishing and recreation. More modern techniques, like EPA Method 1668C, which can detect PCBs at far lower levels, should have been mandated. Additionally, the TMDL should require more comprehensive monitoring, including data from sediment, fish tissue, and varying flow conditions, to fully capture the extent of PCB contamination.

“By failing to take a more comprehensive approach to monitoring, the final TMDL falls short of delivering the long-term solutions that the Spokane River so desperately needs,” said Katelyn Scott, water protector for Spokane Riverkeeper, in a press release. “We cannot overcome the public health risk from PCBs without looking at fish tissue and sediment data.”

Sampling shows PCB levels increase as the river flows from the Idaho border to the Long Lake Dam, with hot spots of contamination between Sullivan Road and the Green Street Bridge. These PCB levels exceed both state and Spokane Tribal water quality standards, rendering fish in the river unsafe to eat. Currently, a fish consumption advisory is in place due to PCB contamination, disproportionately affecting communities that rely on the river’s fish for food.

Subsistence fishers are particularly at risk. Individuals with higher rates of fish consumption are exposed to elevated levels of PCBs, exacerbating existing health disparities. Most PCBs entering the Spokane River pre-date the ban, with one major exception: Inland Empire Paper Co. (IEP) recycles paper printed with imported inks that contain PCBs. In addition to IEP, Kaiser Aluminum and the Liberty Lake, Spokane County, and City of Spokane wastewater treatment plants each discharge PCBs to the river. All five discharge pipes are permitted by the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE), and only recently were PCB limits added to the permits (though legal battles continue to threaten those limits).

Spokane Riverkeeper and Sierra Club remain dedicated to advocating for stronger protections and effective PCB reduction measures. We will continue to hold the EPA and other responsible parties accountable for the health of the Spokane River and work to ensure that the necessary actions are taken to protect public health, fish populations, and the broader ecosystem.