Year: 2010

Balance the Load

Kelly Susewind, Water Quality Program Manager for Washington Department of Ecology, provides an editorial supporting moving forward with implementing the Spokane River Dissolved Oxygen TMDL (water cleanup) plan. An Inlander commentary.

Envirostars Spokane program launches during Pollution Prevention Week

The successful EnviroStars program in the Puget Sound area is now available to Spokane County businesses. EnviroStars is a voluntary program that certifies small businesses that have practices and policies in place that reduce hazardous waste and protect the environment.

The EnviroStars program started in King County in 1995 and now more than 700 businesses are participating in Western Washington.

Avista Testing Spokane River Flows in Riverfront Park

People hanging out in Riverfront Park or crossing downtown bridges may have noticed cranes, sandbags and people in the north channel of the Spokane River. What’s going on is Avista conducting an “Upper Falls Aesthetic Spill Pilot Test,” a condition of Avista’s new FERC license for the Spokane River Hydroelectric Project. The Spokane River Forum reports.

Lawsuit over river discharges could be boon for wetland

A lawsuit over river discharges threatens the January 2012 startup of a new Spokane County sewage treatment plant, so officials are working on a backup. Plan B, restoration of a wetland with treated wastewater, requires county officials to exercise many of the land-use tools in their kit – and one that doesn’t yet exist. The Spokesman Review reports.