Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Commissioners oppose Lake designation
DAVENPORT —The Lincoln County Commissioners and other regional government leaders are concerned about the potential of the Environmental Protection Agency naming a 150-mile stretch of Lake Roosevelt from Grand Coulee Dam to the Canadian border, known as the Upper Columbia River, as a superfund site.
This would add the Upper Columbia River to the National Priorities List due to concerns over lead contamination through areas near Canada the Commissioners were told by EPA officials in August that no lead or harmful medals have been found in Roosevelt waters bordering Lincoln County.
Upland soil studies found harmful levels of lead on some residential properties near Northport, officials said then.
“They haven’t found anything down here,” Commissioner Scott Hutsell said.
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, the Spokane Tribe of Indians and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation support the Superfund listing.
“It is beyond question that this section of the river is polluted, and a thorough restoration of the river will be an expensive project,” Colville Reservation Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson said in an early Feb. press release. “A Superfund listing will unlock access to necessary funds for remediation, and a listing would reflect the high priority for cleanup that this site deserves.”
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, opposes the listing. So do the Stevens County Commissioners and Eastern Washington Council of Governments.
A Jan. 16 letter from the Council said the Council would reconsider their position “only after completion of the remedial investigation and feasibility studies are complete and we have had adequate time to review these documents and the data that accompanies them.”
The Stevens County Commissioners said in a Jan. 16 letter to the EPA that the agency hasn’t been forthcoming with their process.
“This is a chase after dollars,” the letter said.
Locally, the Lincoln County Commissioners are concerned about the stigma that would surround the portion of Lake Roosevelt bordering the county being deemed a superfund site, leading to assumptions the water is contaminated.
“It’s a money grab,” Hutsell said. “It’s all about a big grab from EPA, and (the Dept. of) Ecology is right along with them.”
A decision is likely to come from the federal level in Washington, D.C. A public hearing was expected prior to that decision, but hadn’t been scheduled by press time.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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