River Protection and Stormwater Prevention: Spokane takes a step forward!

After decades of confusion, the Spokane River Forum, Spokane Riverkeeper, the City of Spokane and Gonzaga Environmental Law Clinic teamed up to create Spokane’s first definitive stormwater permitting guide. Understanding Stormwater Permitting in the City of Spokane lays out all the information and resources for developers to build without compounding Spokane’s stormwater problem.

Today, stormwater—a third of which is left untreated—washes contaminates into the river, accounting for its greatest source of pollution. Bart Mihailovich, the Spokane Riverkeeper, sees the guide as a game changer, saying “In the past, we kept hearing from builders that it was just too complicated, that the information was too spread out. Now there’s no excuse; everything is in one place.”

Funding for the project was an outcome of a settlement between the City of Spokane and Spokane Riverkeeper regarding PCB discharges into the Spokane River.