(The Center Square) – Spokane has two weeks to come up with a plan to provide clean drinking water to contaminated sites around the local airport after the state notified the city and county on Tuesday.
Last month, the city of Spokane and Spokane County agreed to an order from the state Department of Ecology requiring them to enter a state-mandated PFAS cleanup at the Spokane International Airport.
Experts often refer to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as “forever chemicals.” The airport used firefighting foam with PFAS for years and found it in the water in 2017. Now Ecology staff are enforcing a provision in last month’s order requiring Spokane to take action before a long-term cleanup begins.
The state allocated $7.5 million for private filtration systems in the surrounding area last year, but the Ecology department order essentially left the city and county to fund any open-ended cleanup costs for the airport.
“Ecology has determined contamination originating from SIA property has migrated downgradient and impacted off-property drinking water at levels exceeding safe standards,” according to a letter Ecology staff sent to the city, county and their jointly-owned SIA airport. “Emergency interim actions are required.”
The parties must submit a draft short-term interim action plan by Feb. 24 that explains how they will provide bottled water or point-of-use filtration systems for contaminated wells in the impacted area.
A boundary map that Ecology sent to the parties stretches west of the city, north into Riverside State Park and then all the way down to Hayford, encompassing SAI and the surrounding area. Ecology told West Plains residents in an email that the work could expand based on future sampling results.
The parties must describe how they will sample private wells within the area and provide bottled water and/or the POU filtration systems to impacted residents and businesses within the boundary map. The state expects the work to begin next month and will hold a 60-day public comment period on the plan.
John Hancock, president of the West Plains Water Coalition, applauded Tuesday’s announcement, but noted that it’s only the start, as rural homeowners and farmers have faced contamination for years.
“Bottled water is a good place to start, but it’s not enough for tooth brushing in the bathroom, strawberries in the garden, and PFAS-free eggs from our kids’ chickens,” Hancock wrote in an email to The Center Square. “Farm life is sagging in our rural community, and contaminated irrigation threatens the local food chain and individual property values.”
Spokane must also submit a draft long-term interim action plan in May that explains how the parties will supply point-of-entry treatment systems or safely connect contaminated wells to the city. POU systems treat water at the faucet and are cheaper than POE systems, which treat water for the entire home.
Ecology expects the long-term work to “begin later this year” and will hold another comment period.
Ecology Site Manager Jeremy Schmidt told The Center Square that the boundary map covers about 30 square miles and encompasses about 4,000 parcels. He said many of those lots are vacant or already connected to the city’s water, but that the county and city will be responsible for any additional work.
“We would estimate the number of drinking water wells to be much lower,” he told The Center Square. “We hope to get this work going as soon as possible, but obviously, there’s logistical considerations.”
City Spokesperson Erin Hut told The Center Square that Mayor Lisa Brown had received the letter and is evaluating after asked how much it could cost the city to provide bottled water in the impacted area.
County Commissioner Al French told The Center Square that there is a meeting with the city later this week and that they will hash out more of the details then. He cited the Legislature’s budget challenges as the reason Ecology is pushing to secure local funding, despite the city and county’s budget woes.
He has suggested pumping in water from an outside source in the past and said Tuesday that his proposal is still on the table.
French chairs the West Plains PFAS Response Task Force, which has a meeting set for this Wednesday.
“So far, the county is the only entity with skin in the game,” French told The Center Square, citing costs that the county faced to distribute the $7.5 million from the last for filtration systems last year.
