The Lands Council has been staying busy. Cleaning up our Spokane River is a key part of our work. I recently took part in a virtual conference for the annual National River Rally. My topic was reducing inadvertent PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). The Spokane River Regional Toxic Task Force is leading the country in investigating these man-made chemicals that are contaminating the Spokane River. They come from inks, paint, and pigments that are produced with chlorine. Think of that yellow stripe in the road as it washes into the storm water - it contains a certain variety (congener) of PCB Even the newsprint in recycled paper has inks that contain PCBs.

At my virtual conference presentation, I talked about the sources and what members of the Task Force are doing to reduce PCBs. For example, Kaiser Aluminum is about to start an innovative pilot project using ultraviolet light to break down PCBs in contaminated groundwater. This will be the first field test in the country and if it works it will reduce PCBs getting into the Spokane River.

We're also continuing our work with the North Central High School which has fungi being tested that can break down PCBs and students are doing DNA testing to see which variety works best.

PCBs come from a variety of sources. Some are coming from wastewater treatment plants, some are coming from stormwater, some are leached out of the river banks, and some come from air deposition. As the Task Force continues to do research and on the ground mitigation, we will keep you informed.

Thanks again to all of you who took part in our virtual auction. I hope you are well and I hope we can see each other in person sometime later this summer.