West Plains residents urge Spokane County to form PFAS task force, cite ongoing contamination

Jerry Gertz, president of Deep Creek Ranch Sheets Water Association, told the Spokane County Board of County Commissioners on March 11 that local residents remain exposed to PFAS contamination and urged the board to create a task force that includes homeowners, small water systems and outside experts.

Gertz said his small Class A water system serves 49 houses north of Fairchild Air Force Base and named agencies he wanted on a task force: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Ecology. "The time for action is now," Gertz said, adding that West Plains residents have been drinking contaminated water "through no fault of their own." He also asked, "Where's the clean water in the filters that were promised by Commissioner French last year?" which he said has not appeared.

John Hancock, a West Plains resident, said commissioners had endorsed seeking $20,000,000 for PFAS response but asked for details and a plan before asking constituents to advocate. "Sign us up to advocate for something that you've endorsed, but what's the plan?" Hancock said.

Laura Ackerman, another West Plains resident, praised the county library system before turning to the contamination issue. She said the county is lagging behind local university students doing geoscience work and urged elected officials to move past assigning blame for the source of firefighting foam contamination at Fairchild and Spokane International Airport. "We need to stop using the fact that we didn't cause the firefighting foam to be used as a barrier to do anything about it," Ackerman said.

Speakers repeatedly pressed the board to move from discussion to concrete action: establishing a task force with both local stakeholders and the named state and federal agencies, detailing how any requested $20,000,000 would be used, and accelerating distribution of promised water filters. The comments were part of the public forum; the transcript shows no board action to form a task force during the March 11 meeting.

The public forum comments followed an opening in which the board noted all five commissioners were present: Commissioner Cuny (attending by Zoom) and Commissioners Jordan, Waldra, French and Kearns (in the conference room). No written comments on the legislative agenda were received for the meeting.

The public forum concluded with no formal directive recorded in the meeting minutes; the transcript indicates residents urged the board to convene and activate a task force immediately and to provide details on the previously mentioned $20,000,000 request.