It’s pretty well known that the synthetic chemicals collectively known as PFAS have been found in some of the water wells on Spokane’s West Plains. We’ll talk with EWU geology professor Chad Pritchard about his recent testing for PFAS.
We'll also talk with John Hancock from the West Plains Water Coalition about the Spokane County PFAS Response Task Force and its work to help the people whose wells are contaminated.
"The goal of that is to spend $6 million in filter hardware to help as many high risk homes on the West Plains as possible as a down payment towards understanding what the real cost, the total cost, is going to be for a number of homes that are still just an estimate. This is an example of the way local governments, regulatory agencies, citizens can get together to create the best possible path forward to a really large and complicated issue."
We’ll also talk with Chad Pritchard about whether there’s enough water to sustain more development in the West Plains.
"It gets really complicated. It is not an easy situation. Yeah, and the more we develop, I can understand that people want to develop, that's how you bring in taxes or whatever, but it's, this is a pretty arid area. And if we're gonna start depending only on rain to recharge our aquifers, there's gonna be an issue."
We’ll also meet with Andrew Chanse, the director of the Spokane city library system, who is not pleased with recent cuts to his agency’s budget. He’s reaching out to the public to help him get some of that money restored for next year.
"We're in a situation where the general fund just really doesn't support library operations in an adequate way. We're told as a department to go get the money and ask the public for their vote for our operations and the public has emphatically supported us each time. I've implemented now three levy measures for operations and one bond measure to redo our facilities. And they vote yes. So to turn around when we last went for our ballot measure in 2024, 2025 is the first year of this levy. And to receive a cut, it just doesn't make sense."
