CCC Administrators Uncategorized

The Wall Unseen

While a border wall is built to the south — There exists a border wall to the north

Not built of concrete and steel — But of money, politics, and diplomacy

It’s not visual, but can be visualized — It’s existence seen circumstantially

When trespassed it grants sanctuary — To Canadian toxins and slag illegally

Squatters claiming possession adversely — To Columbia’s riverbed in perpetuity

Tho harmful to fish and benthics alike — Efforts at needed remediation

Result in collision — Against this wall unseen

Behind this wall extortionists lie — Wearing top hats, pinstripes, and tails

Canada making threats of reciprocation — If the U.S. pursues Columbia’s remediation

For past transboundary violations — by U.S. rust belt corporations

To this threat our government is complying — Hostaging Columbia, her inhabitants dying

Polluters escaping by recrimination — Victims subsidizing culpable corporations

Better both Nations not shield — Their transgressing corporations

For both Nations in violation — The Boundary Waters Treaty 1909

By allowing their pollutants — To cross the border line

The wall unseen is government — Constructed to protect their polluters

~  Old Man River

CCC Administrators Uncategorized

Mindy Smith and the Rev. Martin Wells: Much is at stake in Columbia River treaty’s update

Thurs., July 4, 2019, 8:52 p.m.

By Mindy Smith and the Rev. Martin Wells

Maps of the Columbia River circulating in the U.S. often stop at the international border, as though the world beyond is unknown. Rivers, forests and wildlife don’t recognize such borders. For thousands of years salmon returned to spawn along this undivided river. Indigenous people lived and buried their dead here.

The international border is the 49th parallel, drawn in London and Washington, D.C., across the river-watershed home for indigenous people and fish and wildlife. Despite the political line, we remain one region with shared and binding history, culture and economy. Americans and Canadians together.

One tie that binds us together is reciprocal education. Community Colleges of Spokane and Selkirk College are jointly hosting the sixth annual international conference “One River – Ethics Matter” in Castlegar, B.C., on May 30-31.

Castlegar is located at the confluence of rivers, the Kootenay and Columbia. With worsening forest fires and massive salmon die-offs from warming downstream reservoirs, the ethics conference will spotlight youth at risk, climate change, and renewing the Columbia River Treaty.

Indigenous, religious and academic leaders will gather to discuss the Columbia River’s past and future, ethics, and in the words of the Northwest Roman Catholic bishops’ Columbia River Pastoral Letter, actions we must take “to effect a spiritual, social and ecological transformation of the watershed.” 

Only one-sixth of the Columbia River Basin is in Canada, producing about 40 percent of the water flowing into the Pacific Ocean. In especially warm years with little snow, that number climbs toward 50 percent. With climate change, the Columbia’s cold, water-rich Upper Columbia is increasingly valuable.

Just as tribes gathered at Kettle Falls to trade goods and fish for ocean salmon, people today engage in regional commerce. Canadians travel to Spokane, Colville, Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry and many other communities. Americans travel north, experiencing beautiful British Columbia. Canadian and American flags fly side-by-side. Dollars trade hands in a robust, regional border economy.

The Peace Arch at the border between the two countries near Vancouver, B.C., is inscribed: “Children of a common mother,” symbolizing enduring friendship across a long international border. Here, outside the Columbia Basin, Canadians’ and Americans’ political leaders met in 1964 to complete the Columbia River Treaty that would devastate the Upper Columbia.

The Columbia River Treaty manages for two purposes only: hydropower and flood risk. The treaty is silent on health of the river, riparian habitat, survival of salmon and salmon-based cultures, and indigenous sovereignty. Once, 16 million to 30 million salmon returned to the Columbia River Basin annually, the world’s richest salmon river. Under the current treaty, the river is managed as a dam-machine that generates wealth for some at costs to others.

The treaty authorized the construction of four major water storage dams – one in Montana and three in B.C., setting in place American-Canadian joint governance of the international Columbia River. Building these dams and reservoirs required logging, bulldozing and flooding vast wildlife and fisheries-rich forested valleys of the Upper Columbia. Hugh Keenleyside Dam near Castlegar, B.C., forced 2,300 people from their homes.

Treaty negotiations began a year ago. Much is at stake for the Upper Columbia on both sides of the border. Negotiations are closed to the public.

Regional citizens, acting as a “community of the Columbia,” are striving to influence their destiny through learning about and urging that an updated international river treaty get right what the original treaty got wrong. Health of the river – “Ecosystem-based Function” including restoring salmon above Grand Coulee Dam – needs to be added as a third treaty purpose coequal with hydropower and flood risk. The river needs a voice.

“If you are not at the table, then you’re on the menu.” Canada has invited aboriginal First Nations into the treaty negotiation sessions as observers. We remain hopeful that American negotiators will also invite the aboriginal Columbia Basin tribes.

Against a backdrop of historic wrongs and unfolding climate change, stewardship and justice-based river governance is within our grasp. Water is fundamental. Water is life. As the indigenous tribes who speak Syilx, one of the Columbia’s indigenous languages, have memorialized in their Water Declaration, “When we take care of the land and water, then land and water take care of us. This is our law.”

Mindy Smith, MD, MS, is a family physician and medical editor who works with Citizens for a Clean Columbia advocating for the Columbia River ecosystem. The Rev. Martin Wells is retired bishop of the Eastern Washington, Idaho and Wyoming Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

CCC Administrators Uncategorized

January 2019 Newsletter

Who are we?

Citizens for a Clean Columbia (CCC) is a volunteer organization focused on advocating for the health of the Upper Columbia River (UCR) and Lake Roosevelt.

Phase 3 Sediment Study

As noted in our July 2018 newsletter, this study is part of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) and has 5 elements:

  • Sediment bed mapping to identify locations of sediment texture classes and depositional areas
  • Nature and extent of sediment chemical and physical properties
  • Sediment porewater to characterize concentrations of bioavailable metals to which sediment organisms are exposed
  • Toxicity identification evaluations (biological effects on benthic species of representative surface samples in the laboratory
  • Characterization of benthic invertebrate communities in sediment

To address difficulties in obtaining surface sediment samples with a clamshell bucket grab sampler in areas of the UCR containing finer sediments intermixed with gravel and cobble, a freeze grab sampling method was tested. Freeze grab sampling is a modified version of freeze core sampling and was tested using a device consisting of a metal pan with multiple 5-inch-long rods protruding from the bottom to extract heat from the sediment (see below). Frozen sediment adheres to the device and, once retrieved, is placed into plastic bags or steel bowls until thawed. This method had not been tested before and innovations in the field were required to address some of the difficulties encountered.

The study demonstrated that the freeze grab sampler was successful for obtaining samples in areas dominated by gravel but not for those areas where the surface sediment was dominated by cobble. CCC provided comments on the study report asking for greater specification of procedures and the use of sensor data to assess whether overlying water or groundwater was drawn into the sediment.

There has also been concern with prior porewater sampling techniques about the lack of ability to obtain a sufficient volume of porewater for chemical analyses without drawing in overlying water or groundwater and while avoiding oxygenation. In response to this concern, a pilot study was completed to determine if the Trident probe could be used to successfully obtain porewater samples from the variety of substrates in the UCR and across the range of sampling conditions encountered with respect to water depths, velocities.

The study results demonstrated that the Trident probe successfully collected porewater as confirmed by water quality parameters such as temperature, and pH without evidence of field contamination in water up to 37.7 feet deep, current speeds up to 5.7 feet per second, and from a range of bottom types including sand and cobbles. The samples were collected in an oxygen-free glovebox. CCC reviewed the study report and requested additional detail about the devices (original and modified) and how sampling depth is determined.

Mindy Smith, CCC secretary

Soil Amendment Technology Evaluation Study (SATES)

The purpose of this study is to identify and field test soil amendment technologies that could cost-effectively reduce long-term potential for human exposure to lead in shallow soils in the UCR area. CCC provided comments on the phase I draft data summary report.

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the soil chemical, mineralogical and physical properties of the test plots including vegetation conditions; the latter assessment was conducted by the Colville Confederated Tribes prior to soil sampling. These data will serve as baseline for monitoring the effects of the soil amendment alternatives. The following amendments are being considered for inclusion in the bench testing effort: soluble phosphorus, biosolids, wood ash, biochar and compost.

Each of the 6 test plots covered an area of 100 x 100 feet. The initial phase of the sampling was to evaluate the spatial variation of arsenic, lead, and pH in near-surface soil and assess duff thickness. For this phase, discrete soil samples were collected from each test plot in August 2017 and analyzed for lead and arsenic. Sampling areas were then backfilled and plugged with wooden plugs to prevent resampling at the same locations during the second part of this phase of the study. Mean lead levels in the soil from 0 to 3 inches ranged from 216 to 566 mg/kg with a variation (standard deviations as a percent of the mean) ranging from 47% to 124%.

Sampling for soil characterization was completed in October 2017 using the four test plots highest in lead concentration and sampling from 16 test pits – 2 feet wide, 2 feet long, and 18 inches deep. Characteristics measured included total solids, arsenic, lead, Ph, and duff thickness; soil physical properties including a description, bulk density, hydraulic conductivity moisture holding; and target analyte list metals (aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, silver, sodium, thallium, vanadium, and zinc). These were later filled in with local soil and capped with a wooden board.

Thirty field duplicates from immediately adjacent soil samples were obtained to assess data precision (field and laboratory). Only 2 of the samples had a relative percent difference (RPD) for lead exceeding 50% (the set value for acceptable deviation). Of four discrete field duplicate samples, six of 88 total analyte pairs exceeded 50%; five, however, were from a single sample. Of the 630 samples analyzed for lead, arsenic and total solids, 175 (27.7%) were J qualified (estimated).

Mindy Smith, CCC secretary

Residential Soils Voluntary Removal Action Conducted in 2018

A second residential soil sampling program (2016) was conducted as part of the UCR RI/FS conducted at 136 residential properties and 8 tribal allotments. Six had lead levels of above 600 parts per million in some areas. TAI volunteered to perform removal actions at four residential properties. The other two were referred to the Washington State Department of Ecology for follow-up.

Surface soil removal was performed in October 2017 with approximately 141 cubic yards removed and disposed to the Stevens County Landfill near Kettle Falls, WA. Following excavation, TAI restored the properties in accordance with property owners’ requests. The work, however, was suspended in late 2017 due to seasonal weather conditions and resumed in Spring 2018, beginning with pre-removal soil sampling to better define areas for removal actions. TAI conducted soil removal activities in August and September 2018 with approximately 3,255 cy of soil excavated from areas on three properties. Excavated soil was again disposed to the Stevens County Landfill and properties restored in accordance with property owners’ requests. All removal activities conducted in 2017 and 2018 were overseen by full-time US EPA personnel.

Mindy Smith, MD, MS

Technical Advisor Report

My efforts over the past five months focused on the phase 3 sediment toxicity pilot studies, soil amendment technology evaluation (SATES) study, aerial delineation study, and the wildlife toxicity reference value (TRV) report. I performed no work in January 2019 due to the partial government shut down. CCC used my reviews in preparing their comments to EPA.

I reviewed the draft memorandum on results of the freeze grab sediment sampling pilot study. The procedure offers the capability to collect sediment samples under some conditions where the Van Veen sampler does not function. Sample size with the freeze grab sampler is much lower than with the Van Veen sampler and the various shapes of the retrieved samples will require development of a rubric to determine sample depth. There was also a concern that methanol could enter the river during freeze grab sampling.

Results presented in the draft pore water pilot study memorandum were encouraging. The trident probe was able to collect 625 milliliter samples in 40 to 60 minutes from a variety of sediment compositions. I requested that more information be presented on the internal volume of the sampler and collection tubing to better evaluate purge volumes, as well as more information on potential mixing with wash water as the sample is drawn through the sampler and tubing. I also requested that the data be made available on the RI/FS database website.

I observed SATES soil collection for the bench-scale studies on October 18, 2018. My previous concerns about soil moisture, rain and the use of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurement of lead in soil turned out not to be issues. The soil was dry, the weather cooperative, and the XRF was used to determine which 2-foot-square subplots were sampled. All soil was collected in one day for the composite high-lead sample to test the potential soil amendments in the bench-scale studies to be undertaken soon. Amendments to be tested are phosphorus fertilizer, biosolids, wood ash, biochar, woody debris and compost. Although formal results on analysis of the high-lead composite soil sample are not yet available, preliminary XRF analyses indicated that the lead level will be high enough to perform the bench-scale amendment study.

I reviewed the draft aerial delineation study in October. This study will develop models of the transport and deposition of stack emissions from Trail to the Upper Columbia River (UCR) area. The primary concern with the draft was the proposed use of soil lead and arsenic levels adjacent to the smelter to validate the models. Soil lead levels next to the smelter were not only influenced by stack emissions; these areas were also subject to dust from ore handling and maintenance activities as well as differential deposition due to various stack heights over time. An additional concern was the assumption that a relatively smooth decrease in deposition would occur as distance from the smelter increased. Local topography and meteorological conditions could easily result in regions of enhanced or diminished deposition in the UCR area.

A continuing concern with the draft final wildlife TRV report was the lack of reference vetting by EPA or any of the participating parties. The TRV report also references the chemicals of potential concern (COPC) refinement document, which is still in draft and has not been issued. I suggested the TRV report issue after the COPC refinement document. Deer and elk are not addressed in the TRV report. Significant populations of both are present in the UCR area. I suggested TRVs be derived for both populations.

Joe Wichmann, PhD; CCC Technical Advisor

Soliciting T-shirt Ideas

CCC is looking for some good ideas for our new T-shirt logo. We have finally run low on our stock so if you have some good ideas, please forward them to Hilary Ohm at hilary@highwaterfilters.com.

Want to be More Involved?

CCC welcomes new members. Our next General Member Meeting will be in the fall. Please join us. We will post updated information on the website.

We are still looking for a new webmaster. This would involve maintaining our website and posting new information to it about once a month. If anyone out there is interested in helping us with this, please contact Mindy Smith (smithm69@msu.edu).

With questions for the EPA project managers, contact Monica Tonel for information on human health studies at Tonel.Monica@epa.gov and Kathryn Cerise for information on ecological studies at Cerise.Kathryn@epa.gov. Kira Lynch is responsible for the Soil Amendment Technology Evaluation Study and can be reached at Kira.Lynch@epa.gov. Concerns may also be directed to the EPA assistant region 10 administrator Michelle Pirzadeh (Pirzadeh.Michelle@epa.gov).

Mindy Smith, CCC secretary