We are stewards over the land & water
The twelve bands of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation trace a cultural connection up and down Sn̓x̌ʷn̓tkʷitkʷ (the Columbia River), stretching well into Canada. The CTCR government and its Environmental Trust Department (ETD) have a mission of achieving and maintaining a healthy environment, including the clean water, beaches, and fish required to support Tribal values, teachings, and subsistence uses. We are developing a long-term monitoring program to assess the status and trends of contamination in fish, water, and beach sediment in the Sn̓x̌ʷn̓tkʷitkʷ mainstem, from the US-Canada Border to Chief Joseph Dam. The pollutants we will be monitoring are: metals (including mercury, lead, and arsenic) and organic chemicals like PBDEs (fire retardants added to plastics and foam products), PCBs (a coolant/lubricant used in the past), and dioxins and furans (unintended byproducts of incineration and industrial paper bleaching).
Our project staff and contractors will be visiting District Meetings in 2023 to solicit input about sampling locations that are important to you.
Keep this page bookmarked! Future items that we are developing for this page before we finalize our sampling plan include:
a web form to gather your input online
summaries of historic data that have been collected in our focus area
what we know about the risk to the community based on historic data
To learn more about what is being studied by other agencies, check out these links:
