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West Plains residents urge Spokane County to formalize PFAS task force, demand filtration and airport accountability
Summary
Residents at the May 13, 2025 Spokane County meeting asked the board to formalize a West Plains Safe Water Task Force, add a regional health representative, include impacted residents and municipal reps, and pursue cost-sharing — including asking Spokane International Airport to contribute — to address PFAS contamination in well-reliant homes.
Several West Plains residents told Spokane County commissioners on May 13, 2025 that more urgent, organized action is needed to address PFAS contamination of private wells.
Jillian McHugh and Laura Ackerman urged the board to make the West Plains Safe Water Task Force an official, answerable body and to include seats for impacted residents from county‑recognized neighborhoods and municipal representatives from Airway Heights, Medical Lake, Cheney and Four Lakes. McHugh specifically asked the board to appoint Dr. Velasquez as regional health co‑representative on the task force.
“Please get that going now. Yes. Make it an official answerable body,” McHugh said. She argued whole‑house filtration for interior and exterior systems is impractical for the more than 4,000 well‑reliant residents and that cost‑sharing must include Spokane International Airport, which McHugh described as an “indisputable major source of PFAS in our West Plains wells.”
Laura Ackerman praised the commission’s recent Fish Lake acquisition but said that did not address the urgent clean‑water needs of West Plains households. She asked the commission to use an independent facilitator to define the task force’s scope, membership and decision‑making. “Give up trying to control it and let a professional do it, please,” Ackerman said.
Commissioners did not take formal action on the requests during the meeting. McHugh and Ackerman said they had submitted written comments and offered to assist the task force; they asked Commissioner French, who they noted serves on the airport board, to press the airport to participate in cost sharing.
