SPOKANE, Wash. — While walking through Riverfront Park, Graden Quist said he saw a spread of trash floating near the Upper Falls dam on the Spokane River.
“I see the trash, and it just bums me out,” he said.
He said he noticed the trash in July and called several city organizations to find out who was responsible for cleaning it up.
After not receiving many responses, he said, “Okay, I’ve gotta do something.”
So he reached out to KREM 2 to look into the sore sight.
“It just didn’t make me feel right, and I felt like I needed to do something about it,” Quist said.
KREM 2 contacted the City of Spokane. Spokesperson Marlene Feist said because the trash was in a dangerous area under the dam, Avista was responsible for it.
Avista spokesperson, Annie Gannon, said the company was aware of the trash and that debris often collects there throughout the year.
“As the water level rises during the rainy season, it picks up trash that scattered all along the shore and sides of the river,” she said.
Gannon said once the water levels rise a little more, crews will open the dam’s spill gate and let the trash flow through to an area that is safer for crews to access.