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Experts present PFAS findings as residents urge stronger aquifer protections in Spokane County CAO update
Summary
A university study presented to the Spokane County Plan Commission mapped elevated PFAS in West Plains groundwater and identified airport and airbase hotspots; residents and task‑force members urged the Critical Areas Ordinance to add aquifer susceptibility mapping, stronger recharge protections and wider testing and filtration programs.
Dr. Chad Pritchard, a geosciences professor at Eastern Washington University, told the Spokane County Plan Commission on May 28 that a two‑year study funded with about $450,000 from the Washington State Department of Ecology found elevated concentrations of PFAS — the class of firefighting‑foam chemicals often called PFOS or PFOA — in shallow groundwater across the West Plains.
Pritchard said sampling included about 30 surface and groundwater stations and roughly 120 private wells. He described hotspots near Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane International Airport and explained that ancient sand‑and‑gravel “paleo” drainages can rapidly transmit contamination toward the Spokane River. “We saw values from roughly 500 to 20,000 parts per trillion at some sites,” Pritchard said, noting the federal/state drinking‑water level his team compared against is about 4 parts per trillion.
That technical briefing prompted multiple public comments urging the county to strengthen its draft Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO). Julia McHugh of the West Plains told commissioners the draft fails to map aquifer susceptibility and the paleo channels that focus contaminants and warned the working draft does not adequately protect the area’s sole‑source groundwater. “Existing known forever groundwater contamination across the West Plains aquifer is unmentioned in the existing critical areas ordinance,” McHugh said, asking the county to revise maps and policy before final adoption.
Staff said the CAO update remains iterative. Scott (county planning director) told the commission staff and consultants are addressing public and agency comments, will post a final draft three weeks before a July 16 public hearing and will convene follow‑up policy discussions where needed. He said restored mapping layers (including the county’s stormwater/frequently flooded areas) will soon be part of the planning mapping file used by permit reviewers.
Commissioners and residents pressed for near‑term mitigation as the county continues technical work. Pritchard noted the Spokane County PFAS task force has secured $7.2 million to provide whole‑house filtration for households with the highest levels and said the research team has submitted a second revision of its report to Ecology and will continue summer and fall sampling with student teams.
What happens next: staff said the CAO public hearing is scheduled for July 16; a posted final draft will be available about three weeks before that hearing, and policy topics that require more discussion will be pulled into additional stakeholder meetings.
The meeting closed with commissioners noting staff will bring updated maps and the CAO revisions back to the commission and to the steering committee of elected officials for continued review.
