Area Tribes Selected by EPA to Receive Columbia River Basin Restoration Funding

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Published: Friday, 03 February 2023 19:02

EPA’s Columbia River Basin Restoration Funding Assistance Program announced awards totaling approximately $6.9 million across 25 projects to reduce toxics in fish and water throughout the Basin. Awards were based on a competitive, grant selection process.

The Spokane Tribe of Indians and Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (CCT) were each selected to receive awards for Upper Columbia River/Lake Roosevelt activities. In addition, The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation will continue an initiative to track the status and trends of toxics in fish, water, sediments, and invertebrates in the Columbia River mainstem from Bonneville Dam to the Canadian border. And the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho received an award to monitor contaminant trends, transport, uptake, and transfer through the Kootenai River Ecosystem.

Pending EPA completing a final award agreement with each tribe, grant activities will begin in 2023. Below is a summary of STOI and CCT Lake Roosevelt awards:

Upper Columbia Basin Contaminant Status, Movement, and Remedial Pilot Study

Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation

Projected EPA Grant Amount: $262,500

Description: The Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation will build on other work in the Upper Columbia Basin, including sampling conducted under EPA’s Upper Columbia River Remedial Investigation and Washington Department of Ecology’s recent 2019 biofilm study. This project will complement the recently funded Columbia River Mainstem Fish Tissue and Water Quality Monitoring Framework study led by the Yakama Nation. The proposed project will monitor a suite of contaminants of concern (COCs) across four media: surface water, bottom sediments, suspended sediments, and biofilm. The primary goals of the study are to: 1) identify areas where contaminant concentrations are elevated or exceed water quality and sediment quality standards set by the Spokane Tribe and EPA, 2) evaluate movement of contaminants transported through the river across media; 3) identify which contaminants are entering the food web via biofilm that are available to bioaccumulate up the food chain; and 4) test the feasibility of a sediment particle trap methodology that could be scaled up for large-scale restoration actions in the future.

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Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

Projected EPA Grant Amount: $350,000

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will undertake planning and piloting of an innovative environmental monitoring and risk communication program that centers the needs of Tribal members while being expansive enough to have relevance for all local residents and users of the 214-mile reach of the Columbia River from the US-Canada border through Lake Roosevelt and Lake Rufus Woods to the Chief Joseph Dam. The Tribe will sample fish tissue composites, beach sediment composites, and surface water (dissolved and total analyses), with approximately 20–25 samples per medium. The specific analytes proposed are among the top EPA priorities: metals including mercury, arsenic, copper, and lead; methylmercury (fish tissue only); PCBs (congener analysis); and DDT and its metabolites. The Tribe will determine sampling locations through community engagement and working with local project partners that have diverse constituencies. The ultimate goal is to reduce uncertainty around what activities and resources are safe for Tribal members and other local residents to do and use, and to initiate a program that will track future trends in contaminant levels.

To learn more about the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program, visit epa.gov/columbiariver. EPA funded 14 projects in their inaugural round of grants in 2020. Visit https://bit.ly/3wvPo1r for 2023 grant cycle opportunities.