SPOKANE RIVER: Sold to highest bidder?

While we worry about overpopulation clogging our roads, an urgent crisis is unfolding on our water, and you deserve to know. The Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) has been fast-tracking the approval of over 223 new commercial boat slips on the Spokane River. For over a year, Concerned Citizens Protecting the Spokane River, a grassroots group, has fought to ensure our community’s safety and constitutional rights aren’t swept under the rug; but mostly to no avail.

This spring, we’re taking our battle to the Idaho Supreme Court (date TBA). Thus far, the IDL has denied our group the legal “standing” to be heard; effectively silencing the people they took an oath to protect and grossly ignoring the Public Trust Doctrine — a legal principle stating that the state must manage natural resources for the benefit of the public, not private commercial interests.

We have asked two critical questions:

1. “Have any studies been done on the carrying capacity of the river?”

2. “Has the Dept. of Fish & Game, DEQ, or the Army Corps of Engineers provided the expertise we pay them for?”

The answers are “No” and “No.” In addition to various factual and statutory errors, the IDL ignored a formal safety objection from the Kootenai County Sheriff. These projects create “unacceptable danger” in already strained river chokepoints. Massive boat traffic and heavy surfboat wakes threaten children on beaches, elders, swimmers, and paddlers, while causing severe erosion to shorelines and damage existing docks.

Furthermore, this reckless pace risks stirring up toxic Superfund heavy metals buried in the riverbed, potentially poisoning the water for generations. Please email us to stay informed and consider a donation. We need your prayers and support to save our river.

REV. SCOTT SCOFIELD

Concerned Citizens, 501c3

Post Falls