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03/28/2005: "Spokane, a sewer runs through it."

Spokane's fish are polluted

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A state Department of Ecology study has found that fish in the Spokane River have the highest concentrations of toxic flame retardants of any freshwater fish in Washington state.

PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, are chemicals used in electronics, plastics, building materials and textiles that build up in fish tissue and in the human body, including the breast milk of nursing mothers. They can cause neurological damage in babies.

"Fish from the Spokane River have the highest values of PBDEs found in Washington state to date," according to a September 2004 report from Ecology's toxics monitoring program.

Worst of all, The Health Department has not yet decided whether a public warning is warranted.

Don't eat the fish... even on Friday.

Nevermind that the Spokane river claims Washinton's highest levels of PCBs. Or the other (and sometimes quite litteral) shit (#2 ingredient in Spokane's water? sewage) floating in Spokane's water supply.

Wow. California went on a tear and outlawed PBDEs after fish were found with PBDE levels of 62 ppb in wet flesh. The fish caught in Spokane had PBDE levels of 1,250 ppb, some 20 times as high!

"Its the water... and a lot more!"

The Spokane-Coeur d'Alene region uses more water per person than just about any other region in the United States. All of it comes from the Spokane river, or its aquifer.