The City of Spokane operates the sewer system for the City and the County. The wastewater treatment plant is located in Riverside State Park and discharges up to 44 million gallons per day of treated sewage to the Spokane River. Many of the sewer pipes that feed into the plant are located along the Spokane River.
The City's sewer system uses an old-fashioned technology to deal with excess sewage and rainwater. The sewer and stormwater drainage pipes are connected -- and when it rains and stormwater exceeds the capacity of the pipes, raw sewage and rainwater combine and overflow into the Spokane River. This type of municipal drainage is called a Combined Sewer Overflow system or CSO, illustrated below.
These CSOs contribute many thousands of gallons of raw sewage to the Spokane River each year.
The federal Clean Water Act requires the City to eliminate its CSOs. The state Department of Ecology has directed the City to separate all of its stormwater and sewage pipes by 2017. In the interim, it is legal for the City to dump raw sewage into the River, but only when the discharge is caused by precipitation (rain or snow). Dry weather dumping of raw sewage is illegal, and poses significant public health threats.
The City operates a CSO website that indicates where all of the CSOs are located. The website is required to provide real-time information when most of the CSOs are overflowing, although the site is not always accurate or up-to-date. While the City is supposed to provide maintenance and monitoring of its CSO sites, the frequency of overflow events indicates that very little is done to keep the public informed when raw sewage is dumped into the river.
The City's website provides monthly and annual reports indicating past CSO overflow events. These reports document that the City discharges significant quantities of raw sewage to the Spokane River, during both rainfall events and dry weather.
The dumping of raw sewage into the Spokane River is a public health issue, especially during summer months when river flows are very low. Swimmers, fishers, and boaters use the Spokane River, up and down the river and especially near Bowl & Pitcher State Park. When the City dumps raw sewage into the River, even accidentally, it poses risk to those who use and enjoy the River -- and who have no idea they are being exposed to the pathogens, toxics and noxious trash that raw sewage contains.
On July 11, a fisherman discovered raw sewage overflowing into the Spokane River just upstream from Bowl & Pitcher State Park, The City was notified and shut down the offending pipe, but it appears that raw sewage had been discharged into the River for many days. (see “Troubled Waters”, and “Testing the Waters”). This event was not isolated. Since 2004, the City has discharged nearly 200,000 gallons of raw sewage during dry weather -- but has never been fined or subject to any enforcement order by the Department of Ecology or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
On July 13, Sierra Club Upper Columbia River Group sent a letter to Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession informing him that the Club will file suit under the Clean Water Act's Citizen Suit provisions if the City fails to properly address its CSO problem, stop discharging raw sewage to the River during dry weather, and upgrade its monitoring, maintenance and education program. No resolution of the problem has been offered to date.
The City of Spokane has 24 CSO overflow points along the Spokane River, shown on the map below.
