The two largest local governments in Eastern Washington, which jointly own Spokane International Airport (SIA), are now on the hook to provide clean drinking water to hundreds of West Plains residents whose wells SIA contaminated with forever chemicals.
John Hancock, the founder of the West Plains Water Coalition, which has been advocating for clean water for West Plains well owners for years, said this was a long time coming.
“The coalition suddenly feels like three years of work has finally blossomed,” Hancock said. “We didn't know when we started where we were gonna end up. So this feels to me like a dream come true.”
The Washington Department of Ecology inked an “agreed order” last month with the city of Spokane and Spokane County that articulates a scope of work to provide well owners either bottled water, home filters or connections to municipal water. The order goes into effect February 20.
It will not solve all the problems caused by the contamination. Many on the West Plains maintain large gardens and small farms, and their crops can absorb the chemicals, which are increasingly thought to cause some deadly cancers and other serious illnesses. Since the mandated filters would be installed in homes, it wouldn’t help with water used outside.
In 2017, the airport tested wells on its campus and found levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are considered dangerous to human health. The airport’s wells had been drilled in an aquifer that produces drinking water and irrigation to hundreds of households in the rural areas between Spokane and Airway Heights, where SIA is located.
It’s not clear yet the precise mechanisms through which the governments will start delivering water, but the airport, the city and the county will work it out according to the timeline established in the agreed order.
“This is a collaborative effort between the city, county and airport,” city of Spokane spokesperson Erin Hut wrote in a text to RANGE. “It will require resources from all three entities, and we are currently working together on an action plan.”
The contamination came from a firefighting compound known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), whose primary ingredient is several forms of PFAS. Not knowing the chemicals were toxic, firefighters at both SIA and Fairchild Airforce Base for years tested AFFF on their tarmacs before washing it into the soil and, ultimately, the groundwater. Both airports were required by the federal government to stockpile and test the foam.
Fairchild immediately notified public health officials of its contamination and stood up limited water provision programs for some affected well owners.
By contrast, SIA officials told the airport’s governing board of the contamination when they found it in 2017 but did not tell the public. It has not so far provided clean water to anyone. A concerned citizen requested the results from SIA and gave them in 2022 to Ecology, which later ordered the airport to clean up the contamination through a state-mandated process.
A decade later, many on the West Plains still don’t have access to clean drinking water; some don’t even know if their well is contaminated. Officials from Spokane County, Ecology and the US Environmental Protection Agency and an EWU professor have tested dozens of wells and are mobilizing drinking water resources, but those efforts have not served everyone who has a contaminated well.
Some airport officials — most notably County Commissioner Al French, who has been on the SIA Board throughout his tenure — still deny that the airport put the chemicals into the groundwater. Extensive studies have shown specific instances in which airport firefighters washed it into the soil and the groundwater.
Still, French and other airport officials have emphasized firefighting training conducted near its grounds by the US Air Force Air National Guard and similar contamination that was found under nearby Fairchild Air Force Base as the culprits. French did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In a rare public-facing presentation the airport gave on the contamination and cleanup, Lisa Corcoran, the chief development officer for Spokane Airports, said the airport is trying to find sources of PFAS contamination that are not on the SIA campus.
“While we did deploy AFFF that has PFAS, it's been at de minimis levels compared to, unfortunately, our partners next door with Fairchild Air Force Base,” Corcoran said. Corcoran did not return a request for comment on this story.
But Nick Acklam, who manages toxic cleanups in Eastern Washington for Ecology, disagreed.
“Ecology is confident that the airport has contributed to PFAS contamination in the West Plains,” Acklam said in an interview. He noted that assertions that the airport might not be complicit in the contamination have made the cleanup process more difficult.
“I think it is one of those things that adds a layer of contention to this cleanup,” Acklam said.
City Council President Betsy Wilkerson, who represents the city of Spokane on the airport board, told RANGE that the airport does bear some responsibility for the contamination.
“SIA is not trying to say that we didn’t have a part to play,” she said. “We admit it.”
The public can submit comments about the water provision and other processes outlined in the agreed order until March 20, and the work of getting water to West Plains well owners is expected to begin close to that time.
