Superfund plan for Columbia River sparks debate in Northwest

“If the EPA continues to move forward with a NPL Listing (Superfund Designation) without completing the RI/FS studies first, you leave us with no other option but to challenge your actions in court,” the Stevens County Board of Commissioners told the EPA in a January letter. “This seems like a big waste of public funds on both sides when after twenty years of waiting for the RI/FS studies to be complete, we are only a couple of years away.”

The EPA, which is taking public comments on the proposal until May 6, says there are many steps ahead before the Columbia River can be added to the Superfund’s National Priorities List, but it doesn’t want to wait until the process is finished before taking actions.

“Completion of RI/FS activities can take many years and early actions can be implemented by EPA during the RI/FS process to address portions of the site,” said Kristin Ching, community involvement coordinator in the EPA Region 10 office, via email.

Once the studies are complete, the agency will then evaluate final options and take more public comments before deciding on a cleanup plan, she said.

Under a 2006 settlement agreement with EPA, Teck Metals agreed to perform and fund all RI/FS activities, Ching said. “We hope that, after the remedy is selected, Teck will agree to finance/perform the cleanup,” she said.

The upper Columbia River, if designated at 150 miles, would not be the largest Superfund site, but it would be near the top of the list. The Hudson River Superfund site in New York has 200 miles of contamination, and the Bunker Hill site in Idaho contaminated by mining wastes includes about 166 miles of the Coeur d’Alene River, according to the EPA.

A Superfund cleanup would help restore the river’s salmon fishery, but it would just be one part of a larger plan to accomplish that, said Carrie Sessions, senior policy adviser on environment and water in the Washington governor’s office.

“There are many, many different efforts to restore salmon runs in that area, not all connected with this Superfund proposal,” Sessions said in an interview. “The governor has been really active on that.”

Washington’s two Democratic senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, have also supported efforts to restore the salmon runs, though neither has taken a position on the Superfund designation.

Last September, Cantwell and Murray announced an agreement between the U.S. and several tribes in the region to reintroduce salmon in the river’s upper basin, with the Bonneville Power Administration providing $200 million over the next 20 years and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation providing $8 million over two years.