Spokane Riverkeeper

River Connection-River Connection, seeks to foster connection and access to the Spokane River and its tributaries. We do this through river outreach and education with the goal of building river literacy and amplifying voices among diverse communities. In 2022 we build connections by: - Partnering with numerous conservation organizations for Washington Water Lobby Day - We worked with volunteers and met with Senator Billig of the 3rd district to voice our perspectives on the legislative issues that were in play and expressed the need to care for our States waters. - Continuing to coordinate with the Upper Columbia United Tribes - We brought river issues to the quarterly environmental meetings with the five tribes of the Upper Columbia River Basin. - Collaborating with artists to share stories of connection to the river through diverse perspectives. - Hosted River as Muse Art Show the first Friday of May featuring river paintings by LR Montgomery at the Community Building - Published three podcast episodes on the Spoken River podcast featuring artists, author and educators, Shawn Brigman, Jess Walter and Margo Hill - Shared stories celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act through filmmakers at the 8th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival - Worked with Cutboard to produce a short film featuring connections to the Spokane River broadcast live through Hamilton Studios for a virtual Spoken River, our annual fundraising event. - Partnering with Friends of the Bluff to conduct Fish Walks along the Spokane River - Conducting numerous outreach and education efforts to classrooms from middle school to college level on river health, issues and awareness. - Organizing an on-the-water tour on rubber rafts with the City of Spokane, and the leadership of the Spokane Tribe. - Conducting on-the-water education and awareness tours on rubber rafts throughout the summer season with the public. - Working with the Salish School of Spokane weekly in the spring in summer on hands on river education lessons on the Spokane River. - Making new friends and partners while traveling the 111 mile course of the river together to promote protection and celebrate our river.Total Number of 2022 volunteers: 1,76650-Science/sediment 66-Science/crayfish 1600-Litter50-Other (events, canoe journey, board/committee members,etc.)

River Restoration- Spokane Riverkeeper works to restore the Spokane River Watershed for its benefit as well as the life it sustains. We do this through our Riverside Litter Pickup and Native Fish Recovery Programs. The goal of the Litter Pickup Program is to both remove harmful pollution from the river as well as connect the community through volunteerism and engagement in the protection and restoration of the river. In 2022, in conjunction with Spokane River Forum, we collected river litter with 1600 community volunteers. Additionally, we facilitated professional outreach to houseless residents along the Spokane River. The accomplishments included: - 60 Community Groups engaged in litter clean-ups - 87 clean-ups were conducted in 2022 - 1600 community volunteers engaged - 24,000 pounds of riverside litter cleaned up from the banks of the Spokane River - 174 River Miles (in total) focused on riverside litter cleanup - 4 Floats executed to focus on outreach to the Homeless population - Approximately 50 homeless campers contacted in the outreach programAs part of our Native Fish Recovery work we support the recovery efforts of the Upper Columbia United Tribes to restore salmonid populations of both redband trout and chinook salmon. We participated in the Salmon recovery Lead Entity Community and Technical Advisory Groups. Additionally, we signed the final paperwork to accept a grant that will provide funding to restore 50 acres of stream-side fish habitat on Rock Creek over the next three years. Accomplishments included: - Contributed to the Lead Entity request for proposals to look at the limiting factors of both redband trout and Chinook salmon. - Continued to attend meetings and provide advice and support on both the technical and citizen outreach committees - Submitted comments to the Colville Tribe over the Federal 401 cCertifications for fish passage to be included in the licenses to run Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams.

River Protection- At the core of our mission, we protect and advocate for the Spokane River. In 2022 we accomplished this through the following programs: River Flow Protection, River Science and Clean Water Defense. The Spokane Riverkeeper(SRK) worked with the Spokane River Water Resources Collaboration Work Group to come up with recommendations for water conservation triggers that listened directly to the Spokane River. When the river falls below the recommended flow level, the city initiates bold conservation measures. Spokane Riverkeeper led the efforts to pass this ordinance turning hundreds of residents out in support of their river and the wise use of water. Additionally, we challenged poor planning in the Court of Appeals with partners Responsible Growth Northeast Washington and as expert witnesses we wrote and testified on the potential impacts that the Pend Oreille Comprehensive Plan Amendment will have on the upper headwaters of the Little Spokane River and its tributaries. As the City of Airway Heights sought a new water right in the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, SRK provided multiple rounds of comments to assure that our river flow will be protected in the future. The Spokane River is closed to new water rights and we provided leadership in assuring that this request will not go unchallenged. Lastly, as advocates of River Flow protection we delivered presentations on the interplay between the Spokane River and the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer at key locations including: City of Spokane Finance Committee - City Council, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Sovereignty through Sustainability- Eastern Washington University Conference, EWU Sustainability for Sovereignty Conference, Catholic Conservation organization conference Caring for Creation.We continued our Community Science Water Quality Testing Program to collect and provide sediment water quality data that allows the State Dept of Ecology to assess the impacts of Hangman Creek pollution on the main stem of the Spokane River. The program this year included two training sessions for community members resulting in 50 volunteers trained to collect samples to be assessed for transparency (water clarity) and turbidity (amount of sediment in the water). 21 of those community members collected samples. 95 sample runs were taken, with 310 samples collected, recorded, and submitted to the Environmental Information Database at the Washington Department of Ecology. 310 samples were analyzed. This data is fourth-tier data and will be considered in 2024 for use in determining if the river is impaired or polluted and deserving of a clean-up plan. Two years of water samples were submitted to Ecology for assessment of pollution. We installed a novel public photo point called Chronolog and wrote two blog posts to explain the results of sediment pollution.In our Water Temperature Science Study, temperature data was collected in collaboration with educators and nonprofit organizations. We submitted our long-term data set to the Washington Department of Ecology for evaluation of exceedances of state water temperature standards and this year eight temperature loggers were deployed in the Spokane River with five loggers recovered to extract data. We worked with the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute and the Spokane Salish School to engage volunteers and students to understand the ecology of our river and toxic pollution by studying crayfish in the Spokane River. We found that mercury is not bioaccumulating in a serious way in the Spokane Rivers crawfish and we worked with 66 volunteers to collect samples including the Spokane Salish School. We conducted four collection events on the Spokane River and Hangman Creek, three of which were public events. We funded one intern to work on leading this project and approximately 200 samples were submitted to Idaho Water Resources Institute for mercury analysis. We shared our experience with the community in two blog posts. Finally, our Clean Water Defense Program ensures that those who discharge pollution to the watersheds and rivers do so legally, that illicit pollution is stopped and that policy ultimately is changed and followed to meet the Clean Water Act goals of eliminating water pollution in the Spokane River Basin. We continue to advocate, educate and litigate to meet those goals. We prevailed in litigation against the EPA over Water Quality Standards for toxic PCBs. Our litigation was dropped after the EPA moved forward with standards that will protect 95% of the public who consume fish. We worked with the Makah Tribe of Indians, Sports fishing federation, Puget Soundkeeper and Columbia Riverkeeper to force the EPA to promulgate a water quality standard and then protect that standard the 45th federal administration that sought to significantly lower the standards. We continued to move ahead on the litigation of two polluters in the Spokane River Basin. We also continued discussions between one stormwater discharger and the town of Spangle. We are hopeful that these cases will be resolved and that pollution will be brought to within legal limits. Spokane Riverkeeper issued comments on five large NPDES holders providing backup in establishing water quality limits for toxic pollution that finally showed up in the Water Quality Permits. We daylighted that PFAS toxic pollution is in the Spokane River. As part of a Settlement Agreement that the Washington Department of Ecology is under for the implementation of the temperature, sediment, and fecal coliform TMDL, we continued to guide and manage this through monthly updates assuring we are on track to uphold the Hangman Creek Basin as a High Priority Watershed, that there is a continued enforcement of Water Quality Violations and that there is ongoing funding and riparian restoration a in order to recover water quality and salmon and trout habitat. We persuaded the Department of Ecology to hold meetings between the Spokane Riverkeeper, Spokane Tribe, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Washington Dept of Wildlife, and Avista Corporation to understand Avistas Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen Plans. These plans are required to account for how they will mitigate pollution stemming from operating the Long Lake Dam. With partners at the Washington Department of Ecology we installed state-of-the-art education signage that informs and educates as to the pollution issue and the solutions for Hangman Creek and we continued to represent clean water and the Spokane River in the WDOEs Voluntary Clean Water Guidance for agricultural practice reform. Under our landmark Settlement Agreement with The EPA, we have worked closely in a Settlement Agreement with WDOE in making sure that problem pollution sites are being addressed. This means that streamside vegetation is being replanted with a buffer of land protecting the stream, and that fences are built to keep livestock out of the Creek. In total, 74 problem pollution sites were being addressed by the WDOE in 2022.