(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.
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.
The Center Square was unable to reach the site managers or Ecology media contacts by phone before publishing. The city’s Public Works Division didn’t respond either. County Commissioner Al French sent a text saying he had seen the letter, but didn’t respond to The Center Square’s call.
French chairs the West Plains PFAS Response Task Force, which has a meeting set for this Wednesday.
His text cited the Legislature’s ongoing budget challenges as the reason Ecology is pushing to secure funding from the city and county, which have also faced back-to-back deficits over the last two years.
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.
“So far the county is the only entity with skin in the game,” French wrote to The Center Square in a text.
The West Plains Water Coalition, a local water advocacy group, also did not respond before publishing.