Spokane River Project Contaminant Guide

PLAYING IT SAFE ON BEACHES AND SHORELINES

Help protect your children from any contaminants by washing hands, face, feet and toys before eating and/or leaving the beach. Also, remember to use life jackets when playing in or by the river.

STUDYING STORM WATER DRAINS

Better understanding the amount of toxic chemicals entering the Spokane River through Spokane's stormwater and combined sewer overflow system is a Washington State Department of Ecology priority. Initial testing, for instance, shows about 55 percent of PCBs may enter the river in this way. A 2007 study will examine the amount of PCBs, PBDEs, and dioxins/furans in our stormwater. It will also begin identifying where these toxic chemicals are located in the storm drain system. Samples will be taken at 15 storm drain locations at three different times.

PCB WATER CLEANUP PLAN

A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report, also called a water cleanup plan, is being developed for PCBs. Th is plan will regulate the amount of PCBs that can enter the Spokane River.

Evaluating Exposure and Risk

Pathways
Contaminant pathways to the river include industrial and municipal discharges, stormwater drains, tributaries, atmospheric deposition and urban runoff.

Contamination
Contaminants can be trapped in sediment on the river bottom, banks, and beaches. They can also attach to fine particulates that travel through the that travel through the water column.

Beaches
People recreating on certain beaches may be directly exposed to metals-contaminated sediments.
 

Bioaccummulation
Sediment contaminants can build up in the tissues of worms, insect larvae and other organisms (called the benthic community) that inhabit the river bottom.  

 

Biomagnification and Food Chain
Contaminant concentrations can biomagnify (increase) in the tissues of species as they move higher in the food chain, e.g.—stone fly, to fish, to humans. This happens as species higher in the food chain ingest and further concentrate toxins in their tissues.

Fish Consumption
For fish species that accumulate contaminants in their tissue and organs, toxins can move up the food chain to humans, birds, and other species consuming fish.