Negotiating teams from the U.S. and Canada are finishing a new agreement to guide operations of the Columbia River for the next 20 years. The treaty it would replace took effect in 1964.
The new agreement was the subject of a conference on the Columbia River last week at Gonzaga.
The new agreement touches upon things that weren’t considered important in 1964, for example, how to manage the river to make it easier for young salmon to swim from their spawning grounds to the ocean. Negotiators say the new treaty also encourages efforts by Native and First Nations tribes to re-establish salmon populations in rivers and streams that have been blocked by dams.
PFAS has particular relevance in the Spokane area because the chemicals have been detected in water wells on the West Plains. But it’s a problem all over the United States. Alissa Cordner is the co-director of the PFAS Project Lab and an associate professor of sociology at Whitman College in Walla Walla. She will speak Monday night at a meeting of the West Plains Water Coalition at the Hub in Airway Heights.
Happy birthday to Spokane Valley state Senator Mike Padden, who turned 78 last Thursday. Padden has had a long career of public service, beginning with his journey of riding the Ronald Reagan wave to Olympia in 1980. He served 14 years in the state House, came back to Spokane to serve as a district court judge for 12 years, then was elected to the state Senate in 2011 and served 13 years.
Austin Jenkins interviewed Padden recently for TVW’s “Inside Olympia” program.
