Fish Consumption Advisory and Cleanup

The Washington Department of Health issued a fish consumption advisory for PCBs. PBDEs, dioxins/furans and metals have also been detected at elevated levels in fish tissue. Idaho has issued no fish consumption advisories for the Spokane River. See map below for more info, or click here for a full size map from the printed guide.

Cleanup and Restoration
In 2006, PCBs in sediments were “capped” behind Upriver Dam and removed in a backwater area of Donkey Island. Lead and arsenic were also isolated from public exposure by removal of soil and capping at the Starr Road recreation area.

In 2007, isolation of lead and arsenic at the Island Complex and Murray Road recreation areas will take place. Additional cleanup of lead and arsenic at the recreation areas shown on the map will be conducted over the next three or four years. All cleanup activities are designed to protect human health and the environment. Some movement of additional contaminated sediments into areas being cleaned up may occur with future flood events. Such potential movements will be less of a health risk than existing conditions and will be monitored by Ecology.

In Idaho, no cleanup activities of shoreline soil with elevated levels of contaminated sediments have been initiated.