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French, Marshall offer different remedies for clean water on the West Plains

Students and faculty from Eastern Washington University and Spokane Community College are sampling wells on the West Plains for PFAS and other harmful chemicals.
Photo by Chad Pritchard
Students and faculty from Eastern Washington University and Spokane Community College are sampling wells on the West Plains for PFAS and other harmful chemicals.

Clean drinking water is an important issue in the race that will determine which party holds control of the Spokane County Commission. The Republican incumbent, Al French, and his Democratic challenger, Molly Marshall, have offered different approaches for how to provide water to West Plains residents who own polluted wells.

Many of the people who live in Spokane County Commission District 5 are not affected by PFAS contamination. But for those who are and can’t drink the water from their wells, this is a big deal. It’s why French and Marshall are each unveiling proposals to address the problem.

To review, PFAS are the so-called “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foam and some consumer products. They’re believed to cause adverse health effects, though the science is still evolving.

The chemicals, derived from firefighting drills at Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane International Airport, were initially detected in local groundwater in 2017.

Al French's plan for providing clean water to the West Plains also contains rebuttals to Molly Marshall's five-part plan.
Courtesy of Al French
Al French's plan for providing clean water to the West Plains also contains rebuttals to Molly Marshall's five-part plan.

French’s plan bypasses the question of how to get PFAS out of groundwater. At the moment, he says, that’s unsolvable.

“There is filtration systems that you can put on a wellhead but it's a very expensive proposition. I mean you're talking $40,000-50,000 dollars per wellhead to do that and then you've got to change the filters on a regular basis and stuff so it is a very high maintenance, high intensity process," he said.

He’s approaching it a different way: Find a new drinking water source for those who can no longer rely on their wells.

“Imagine if you will a big pipe from our wastewater treatment facility in the valley piping water down to let's say the community college and then pumping the water back up to the West Plains," he said.

"I don't have a pipe that big but I do have the river so can I put eight million gallons in here and then take it out downstream and Ecology said, ‘Well, yeah, we could do that if you could create a trust agreement that said you're not going to take more water out of the river than you put into it," French said.

His plan has some challenges. The county needs permission to pull water from the river. He says the commissioners have hired an attorney to negotiate with the Spokane and Kalispel Tribes, which have senior water rights.

Assuming they get the OK to extract river water, French's plans call for the county to send it up to the West Plains through a new set of pipes that would run alongside pipes Fairchild Air Force Base already uses for its water supply.

“That plan is getting a lot of traction and work with all three mayors and legislative bodies for the three cities on the West Plains and they're working with us. We have a leadership group put together. We're working with the tribes and so we're getting very, very close to being able to make that a reality," he said.

French acknowledges the unknowns. How much will it cost? What are the construction challenges? Are there regulatory requirements that would slow down the project?

He is confident those issues can be worked out in time to get clean water up to the West Plains by next summer.

Molly Marshall is skeptical.

“He has a concept. It’s not a plan. He hasn’t done the homework to get all the stakeholders in line to implement this plan," she said.

Marshall says French’s plan is of no immediate help to property owners who can no longer use their wells.

“They need resources right now. He's talking about a long-term filter project, like maybe looking at what the Air Force has done, but there's over-the-counter filtration systems. There's Culligan water that can be brought in. There's under-the-sink filtration systems. These are not expensive and that would help people that have this immediate need," she said.

Marshall’s plan is a mix of short-term and long-term. She wants the county to redirect American Rescue Plan Act money that had been assigned to other projects but which hasn’t yet been spent. She says there could be hundreds of thousands of dollars available.

Marshall also suggests the county do what the city of Spokane has done and join lawsuits against the manufacturers of PFAS chemicals. She calls on the health district to hire a toxicologist, an expert who can be a resource to property owners with PFAS issues. And she wants to appoint a local committee dedicated to finding money to address long-term PFAS questions.

“We need to make this a priority with a dedicated PFAS team from across the county, across the state, in the cities, including experts, government leaders, and the community. We can model best practices from other communities that already have done this," she said.

French’s plan has support from at least two city leaders on the West Plains, Airway Heights City Manager Albert Tripp and Medical Lake City Administrator Sonny Weathers. Both credit the commissioner for looking for creative solutions to the problem.

Marshall’s plan has the endorsement of Eastern Washington University geologist Chad Pritchard, who is sampling the pollution and trying to determine how far it has spread. Pritchard acknowledges French’s plan can likely bring new water to the area. But he likes that Marshall’s plan seeks to find ways to clean up what’s already there.

Doug Nadvornick has spent most of his 30+-year radio career at Spokane Public Radio and filled a variety of positions. He is currently the program director and news director. Through the years, he has also been the local Morning Edition and All Things Considered host (not at the same time). He served as the Inland Northwest correspondent for the Northwest News Network, based in Coeur d’Alene. He created the original program grid for KSFC. He has also served for several years as a board member for Public Media Journalists Association. During his years away from SPR, he worked at The Pacific Northwest Inlander, Washington State University in Spokane and KXLY Radio.