U.S. Water News Online
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Overflows of untreated sewage into the Spokane River happen too frequently during the dry summer months, when residents are more likely to be recreating in the water, the Sierra Club alleges.
In a letter to Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession, the conservation group's local chapter threatened to sue unless the city reviews and fixes its continuing dry weather sewage overflow discharges.
"A responsible city does not expose its citizens to raw sewage," said lawyer Rachael Paschal Osborn, coordinator of the Spokane River Project of the Sierra Club's Upper Columbia River Group. "With this action, Sierra Club intends that the city will stop risking public health."
The letter gives the city 60 days to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, which regulates discharges into the river, or face a lawsuit.
City officials had no immediate comment on the letter.
City records indicate combined sewage outflows have sent almost 200,000 gallons of raw sewage into the river during dry weather the past two years. That potentially represents more than 20 violations of its federal clean water permits.
Under the Clean Water Act, the city could be fined more than $30,000 a day if it dumps untreated sewage in violation of federal permits.
"We believe it would be vastly cheaper for the city to fix the system than to pay the fines," said Rick Eichstaedt, a Center for Justice attorney representing the Sierra Club. "The city's violations are extensive."
Eichstaedt called for better monitoring, better maintenance of sewer lines and better public education about possible sewage spills.
Officials said improvements to the city wastewater system already have reduced the number of sewage discharges considerably.
An unknown amount of sewage flowed into the river after a pipe blockage diverted the untreated effluent into an outfall pipe near Downriver Golf Course.
City crews still don't know when the spill began or how much sewage was released, said Dave Mandyke, acting director of Spokane Public Works and Utilities, whose agency must submit a report to the state Department of Ecology.
Some preliminary estimates have said that sewage could have been flowing for several days, perhaps weeks.
Most discharges are legal because they occur during rainstorms, when the city's wastewater treatment plant is overwhelmed. Dry weather discharges violate the city's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit.
The city's failure to prevent the dry weather discharges is compounded by the Ecology Department's failure to enforce penalties, Eichstaedt said.
The last time Spokane faced formal sanctions was in 1999, when Ecology fined the city $15,000 for an August dry weather discharge that dumped sewage into the river for three days.
If the city responds quickly and corrects the problem, it won't be fined, Ecology spokeswoman Jani Gilbert said.
"Our interest isn't to fine them," she said. "Our interest is in stopping the pollution."
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