(The Center Square) – City and county officials both agreed this week to enter a state-mandated PFAS cleanup at the Spokane International Airport, requiring ongoing spending without a total estimate yet.
The Spokane City Council approved a resolution Monday to enter the Department of Ecology cleanup, followed by the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday. Ecology ordered a remedial investigation and feasibility study for SIA last March before sending liability letters to both jurisdictions in August.
Experts often refer to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as “forever chemicals.” The airport used firefighting foam containing them for years. The Fairchild Air Force Base is facing a similar issue, and officials have identified both sites as potential PFAS sources in the West Plains’ drinking water.
Groundwater monitoring first identified the cancerous agents at SIA in 2017. The city and county both own the airport, so they’re responsible for the SIA cleanup. The federal government is responsible for Fairchild Air Force Base, but the state has funded $7.5 million for filtration systems in the West Plains.
“I don’t blame the cities, and I don’t blame the counties and I don’t blame [Fairchild],” Spokanite Larry Andrews testified Monday, referencing people he knows impacted. “But you’ve got to remember these people, many of them spent their life’s fortune on this land and … now, the crops actually are poisonous.”
Despite first detecting PFAS in 2017, Ecology didn’t begin investigating SIA until receiving a complaint in 2023. While the state put some money behind private well filters for West Plains residents last year, this new Ecology-mandated cleanup order locks the city and county in financially for years to come.
According to the agreed order, the city and county must complete a remedial investigation, feasibility study, groundwater monitoring and other actions as needed to reduce exposure. The city and county say SIA will take the lead on this work, but the Ecology order holds both parties liable for the cleanup.
Ecology had already spent more than $177,000 on remedial work as of Sept. 30 and wants the city and county to reimburse it within a few months or face a 12% interest rate compounded monthly.
“Ecology may utilize a collection agency and/or, pursuant to RCW 70A.305.060, file a lien against real property subject to the remedial action to recover unreimbursed [costs],” according to the document.
The order includes deadlines to track progress and hold the parties accountable for the cleanup work.
Notably, the order and the city and county paperwork attached to it do not identify a total cost for this or a dedicated funding source, leaving both parties with potentially open-ended funding commitments.
“Spokane is not the only community that is facing PFAS challenges, and it will definitely be a federal problem. The city and the county are working in tandem to address this issue,” Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said Monday. “It will take years, but every journey starts with one step.”
