After a press conference with the Benton-Franklin Health District on September 16, 2021, it was announced that there are now six incidents reported with animals getting sick and even dying after contact with the Columbia River.

Rick Dawson, the Senior Manager of Environmental Health announced in the press conference that there have been six incidents reported with four of the animals dying and two of them surviving.

He reported that four of these incidents occurred between September 12-14, 2021, and two of the incidents were reported September 2, 2021 and September 3, 2021.

Dawson reported that they have taken a number of samples from the river and submitted them to the King County Environmental Lab for analysis to find out if there is a cyanobacteria bloom or toxic algae bloom in the Columbia River.

He announced that they will receive the results September 16 in the afternoon or September 17, 2021.

We will continue to update when we find out the results from the lab analysis.