The Columbia River is now sitting empty with no boats on a stretch of the river in Richland , no people or animals swimming in it , but instead signs posted around the river with warnings on them.
The river was closed by the Benton-Franklin Health District on September 16, 2021 due to toxic levels of cyanobacteria being discovered in the water. Test results also indicted elevated levels of the neurotoxin Anatoxin-A, which is especially dangerous for small children and animals.
Following this closure, Action News looked into what this now means for drinking and irrigation water in our area.
Action News talked with Rick Dawson, the Senior Manager of Environmental Health, to see if this affects drinking water in our area.
"At this point we're still assessing that, but you know, it's highly unlikely because they do an awful lot of treatment of the water, as well as the drinking water intake is very deep in the river. But we will, we are working on doing some sampling of that system as well," said Dawson.
He shared that the Health District is not making any recommendations in regard to drinking water at this point.
"The drinking water intake in Richland is definitely way upstream and so there were some samples taken in that area and toxin levels weren't of concern there. The Kennewick and Pasco drinking water intakes are quite a bit downstream. You know, and we have not seen those impacts there yet as well with anything or reports that cause us concern," said Dawson.
Dawson also said that most irrigation water on the Benton County side is pulled from the Yakima River, but if there are places pulling irrigation water from the Columbia River and it is not filtered then the bacteria could end up in that irrigation water.
He said the bacteria is likely not toxic to plants, but to make sure to not give animals water coming from the Columbia River.
When asked about eating fish from the river, Dawson said, "Generally speaking, the toxins accumulate in organs, so liver and kidneys and those sort of organs in an animal. And as long as one was gutting the fish correctly and not eating those internal organs we would consider it not of a risk."
Dawson shared that the next step in the toxic algae bloom is to monitor and sample the river weekly. He said the bacteria has to go away on it's own, and they will reopen the Columbia River once it is safe again.