This week on Inland Journal:
In August, residents of Spokane’s West Plains will vote whether to create an aquifer protection area for their source of drinking water. It comes at a time when some of that water is contaminated with the chemicals known as PFAS. We’ll talk with Ben Brattebo from Spokane County's water department about the August ballot measure.
"We haven't had funding to study the aquifers on the West Plains for a number of years. We did quite a bit of work in the early 2000s for watershed planning and there was a lot of look at water quantity. [This time] we'd want to look at water quantity, both groundwater and surface water."
We’ll spend a few minutes with Erika Beresovoy from the Washington Department of Ecology to review the wide range of PFAS-related projects ongoing on the West Plains.
"We have a public comment period on the [Spokane city and county] short-term plan to provide safe water. And basically, they've already started implementing that plan because we are kind of in an emergency state to get people clean water as quickly as possible, even though the comment period is open until June 30."
Providence has announced changes in who will provide mental health services at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. We’ll talk with Tamara Sheehan from Providence about why those changes were made and how it will affect patients.
"In the emergency room, when people first are having initial presentations in the emergency room, we have an increase in the serious mental illness, as well as increase in the substance use, not only in the acuity of the patients compared to 10 years ago, or longer, but also in the age groups as well. We're starting to see people with serious mental illness that have suffered from those illnesses or substance use for many, many years."
