EPA issues final PCBs reduction plan for Spokane River

EPA issues final PCBs reduction plan for Spokane River

October 29, 2024

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is issuing its plan to reduce the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the Spokane River basin.

PCBs enter surface water through industrial and municipal wastewater, stormwater, groundwater, and atmospheric deposition, and readily accumulate in aquatic organisms. Even small amounts in the environment can pose health problemsfor people who consume fish.

"This plan charts a course for the Spokane River watershed that will bring greater health protections to those who eat significant amounts of fish," said Casey Sixkiller, Regional Administrator for the EPA's Region 10 office in Seattle.

EPA committed to finalizing the plan in a legal agreement between the agency and the Sierra Club and Center for Environmental Policy and Law.

The agency's plan establishes a Total Maximum Daily Load for PCBs - often referred to as a pollution budget - to protect human health and aquatic life along the approximately 100 miles of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers of Washington from the Idaho border to the confluence with the Columbia River.

Specifically, the new plan reduces the allowable concentration of PCBs discharged into the watershed from the current standard for the State of Washington of seven picograms per liter to 1.3, the standard established by the Spokane Tribe of Indians in 2013.

PCBs concentrations in the Spokane River range from about 30 picograms per liter near Post Falls, Idaho to well over 150 through Spokane Valley and into Long Lake (also known as Lake Spokane) in Washington.

Next, the Washington Department of Ecology will use this budget to develop an implementation plan to achieve the goals of the TMDL. In practical terms, the new TMDL for the Spokane River Basin will mean a concerted effort in Washington and western Idaho to reduce PCBs through measures such as stormwater controls and stricter limits for PCBs in state-issued permits for wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities.

EPA recognizes that the TMDL limits are low, not currently measurable by an EPA-approved method, and in the near term will be very challenging to meet. However, EPA supportsEcology's gradual tightening of PCBs limits in discharge permits as technologies mature.

Idaho's water quality standards require their Clean Water Act programs to meet downstream water quality standards, including those in another state.

Dischargers in the Spokane River watershed have made significant strides in reducing PCBs through wastewater treatment plant upgrades, stormwater retrofits, and regional efforts by the Spokane River Toxics Task Force and Spokane Toxics Advisory Committee. Continuation of these efforts will be particularly important in the heavily industrialized Spokane Valley.

EPA recently provided close to $7 million in grant funds to the Washington Department of Ecology as part of the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program for toxics reduction in the Spokane River basin, which includes funds to develop a regional plan specific to the Spokane River and for on-the-ground implementation activities after the plan is developed.

Prior to being banned in 1979, PCBs were widely used by multiple industries in dyes, paints, plastics, caulking, fluorescent lights ballasts, electrical transformers, and many other industrial and consumer applications. PCBs are found throughout watersheds around the world.

For more information on the plan, go to: https://www.epa.gov/tmdl/spokane-river-pcb-tmdls

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