Then and now: Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility

Spokane’s sewage disposal plant, today called the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility, was completed in 1958. Before that, most of the city’s sewage went straight into the Spokane River.

Section:Gallery

Mon., Nov. 16, 2020

1977: Spokane’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, completed in 1958, is shown during a major expansion which came on the heels of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The plant, along the Spokane River, represented the first major step toward preventing raw sewage from going into the river. The state legislature recommended the plant be built in 1930s, but citizens didn’t approve the money until 1946, and it took more than a decade to overcome court challenges from neighbors of the planned location for construction to begin. Upgrades and expansion of the facility have been almost constant over the past 60 years, in order to meet increasingly stringent water quality standards.

Jim Shelton The Spokesman-Review
The Spokane Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility is seen in November 2020. A new study from the Waterkeeper Alliance found that water downriver of the facility contained two types of per- and polyfluoralkyl substances, but at levels far less than in other waterways across the United States.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo