(The Center Square) – Facing state mandates with open-ended costs, the city of Spokane and Spokane County submitted plans Friday outlining how they will bring clean drinking water to the West Plains.
Spokane Public Works Director Marlene Fiest told the city council on Monday that the liable parties will provide PFAS-filtering water pitchers to the affected properties and access to a clean water fill station.
The Board of County Commissioners also received a similar presentation on Tuesday from Kyle Twohig, senior director of the county’s Public Works Department. He told the elected officials that the boundary area where they must provide clean drinking water includes about 900 properties with contamination.
“These will be made available to folks regardless of whether they’ve had a test,” Twohig explained on Tuesday to the board. “If they’re in the area and they’re on a well, we’re gonna get them clean water.”
The city and county entered an order with the state Department of Ecology in January to address PFAS contamination at the Spokane International Airport, dating back to at least 2017. SIA used firefighting foams for years that contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are known to cause cancer.
Experts often refer to PFAS as “forever chemicals” because they can take thousands of years to break down naturally. The entire Ecology-mandated SIA cleanup will take a while, so the state asked the city and county to submit plans outlining how they will provide clean water to the region in the meantime.
The entire geographic area in which the city and county must provide clean water includes thousands of parcels. Twohig and Fiest say that about 2,000 parcels are already connected to the city’s municipal water system, and another 2,000 parcels are vacant, leaving 900 properties that require clean water.
Twohig told the board that the state Department of Health has already been providing bottled drinking water and under-sink filters to the affected residents. The Garden Springs Road fill station will provide residents with food-grade containers and track water usage to determine if they need more options.
“Point-of-use filter pitchers also would be given to the residents,” Fiest told the city council on Monday.
The city recently solicited bids for a $50,000, one-year contract to provide 600 water pitchers capable of filtering 98% of total PFAS and 1,200 replacement filters to the 900 properties. The county has also received $7.5 million from the state to install point-of-entry filter systems, which treat an entire home.
Water Programs Manager Ben Brattebo told the board that a contractor is visiting the West Plains this week to determine how much the point-of-entry systems will cost for each home. The city and county officials say those systems are part of the long-term plan, which they must submit sometime in May.
Fiest said the installation of those long-term treatment systems should be completed by June 2027.
Commissioner Al French has suggested that another long-term solution could include piping water in from another location. The city and county, aside from the $7.5 million from the state, are financially responsible for providing clean water and for the cleanup at and around SIA under the Ecology order.
Neither party budgeted for the state-mandated cleanup this year, so they’re looking for grant funding.
“We’re kicking every rock we can to find some additional resources to bring to bear here,” Twohig said.
