Up to 300 private and shared wells in western Spokane County are eligible for no-cost water testing that will inform residents and government officials about the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals.
The sampling will take place in an elongated zone east of Airway Heights, from Riverside State Park to Interstate 90 on the southern boundary of Spokane International Airport. The goal is to determine the extent and concentration of a family of chemicals called PFAS.
PFAS, sometimes known by the colloquial label “forever chemicals,” have been used in a variety of consumer and industrial products. Significantly for the West Plains, the chemicals were common elements of the foam firefighters used for practice and for battling real fires. The foam was used for years at Fairchild Air Force Base and at Spokane International Airport.
PFAS substances are water-soluble and spread along the direction of groundwater flow. They do break down, but very slowly. In 2017, PFAS chemicals were detected in Airway Heights’ municipal water supply, forcing the city to purchase its water from Spokane’s city water system. The total scope of the contamination is an open question.
“We are still absolutely figuring out the extent, and the amount of contamination, and how far it’s spread,” Washington Ecology Director Laura Watson said at a Wednesday press conference. “First you…understand the extent of the contamination, and then you can come up with the remedies to clean up [and] to solve the issues.”
The water testing currently offered is free of charge, and interested residents can sign up online. Once contacted and after securing the owner’s consent, EPA staff will collect water from a home faucet or water source leading into the home, then send it to a lab in western Washington for testing.
Collecting all the samples should take about two weeks, according to Department of Ecology Section Manager Nick Acklam. Results usually take about a month.
If the sample yields unsafe PFAS levels, state and local agencies can supply emergency bottled water and work with homeowners to install filtering systems that connect to plumbing under sinks. The Department of Ecology said those steps will have to suffice “until investigation and cleanup of PFAS sources provide more permanent solutions.”
Better knowledge, then action
At the press conference Wednesday, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velazquez held up a small plastic sample bottle and encouraged West Plains well owners in the priority zone between Airway Heights and the Spokane River to get their water tested.
“The best way to alleviate concern is to have information, to have knowledge. And then with that knowledge, act,” Velazquez said. “I can’t think of one reason why I wouldn’t [participate in the tests] if I lived here.”
The results of the sampling project will be used to help create a model of PFAS contamination in the groundwater aquifers that serve the West Plains.
While PFAS chemicals have been in use for decades, their potential effects on human health have only recently drawn significant attention. The Environmental Protection Agency considers them “emerging contaminants,” which means health and environmental agencies are still learning about the chemicals and how they affect people.
Peer-reviewed research indicates PFAS substances may have some influence on health issues such as fertility, cholesterol, immunity and certain cancer risks, but no clear causal connection has been established.
“There are some associations [with health issues],” Velazquez said. “But we are in the early stages of defining what those direct relationships could be with health.”
Concern among West Plains residents increased in 2023, leading to the creation of the West Plains Water Coalition, a group dedicated to learning more about PFAS contamination and prodding local, state and federal officials to do something about it.
State trying to secure agreement for PFAS action at Spokane International Airport
The EPA’s current priority zone includes Spokane International Airport and its immediate area. PFAS was detected in groundwater on airport property in 2017 in amounts above Washington’s recommended health safety levels, according to the state Department of Ecology. Similar results came from wells on a different part of the airport’s land two years later. But the airport did not notify the state of its discoveries, even after a 2021 law required disclosures. Ecology officials finally learned of the test results in 2023, after a third party requested the records and forwarded them to the state agency.
Last fall, the department invited airport officials to negotiate an agreement that would legally require the airport to complete studies that would determine the scope of PFAS contamination and evaluate clean-up options. The airport has since asked for two 60-day extensions: the first cited a technical review of the state’s proposal, and the second questioned whether the proposal meshed with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The Department of Ecology granted the first request, and partially granted the second (30 days rather than the 60 days requested). In a letter to Spokane International representatives, state toxic cleanup manager Jeremy Schmitt said other airport contamination projects have not encountered FAA difficulties.
The agency says if the airport doesn’t sign the agreement by Monday, March 11, the state will issue an enforcement order no later than the 29th. A public comment period will follow.
