Tri-City taxpayers foot the bill for emergencies at Palouse Falls. It’s a state park

In the past three years, Pasco Fire Department rescue crews have been called out to Palouse Falls State Park in north Franklin County 11 times.

It’s a drive of up to an hour and 45 minutes each way, and crews may spend the entire day there.

The cost has come to about $35,000 for Pasco taxpayers for wages and equipment, said Pasco Fire Chief Bob Gear.

The issue that’s concerning Pasco city officials isn’t just the costs for services paid for by city residents for rescues far from the city, under a mutual aid agreement to provide assistance throughout Franklin County.

It’s also the fact that the highly skilled technical rescue crews are then unavailable if they are needed for an emergency in town, say Pasco city officials.

The city of Pasco and Franklin County Fire District 3, which also responds to Palouse Falls rescues outside of its jurisdiction, would like the state to take more responsibility for rescues at the state park.

“State Parks has got themselves a heck of a problem,” Gear said.

A decade ago the remote state park attracted 46,000 people a year to see the water of the Palouse River plunge 198 feet off basalt rock, thanks to geology carved by ice age floods.

But when elementary school children in nearby Washtucna successfully lobbied to get Palouse Falls declared the state waterfall in 2014, attendance started to climb.

The publicity for the park coincided with the increasing popularity of social media. People share their adventures and photos of the falls, and more people plan visits.

Last year about 200,000 people visited the park. On some days, multiple buses are parked in its small parking lot, Gear said.

Spring is the busiest time, when the falls are at their most spectacular as snow melt swells the Palouse River. It’s also the time when the undeveloped trails along cliff sides may turn into slippery mud, increasing the risk for those who use them.

During the last three springs, four men in their 20s died at the park in separate incidents. All four had ventured beyond the viewing area of the falls onto unmarked trails in the largely undeveloped park.

Two took trails down to the water and drowned. Two others hiked above the falls where a trail winds along a cliff above the Palouse River and fell.

Columbia Basin Dive Rescue responded to all four of the deaths, sending crews with technical training and equipment for cliffside rescues using ropes.

The Pasco Fire Department technical rescue team is needed to support Columbia Basin Dive Rescue by lowering equipment down to the water. It’s also needed to rescue people who have fallen from the cliffs.

Franklin Fire District 3, which is responsible for rural land near Pasco to the south of Eltopia and Windust, also has responded to many of the rescues. The state park is within the boundaries of Franklin Fire District 2, which is based in Kahlotus, but that district is set up just to respond to wildfires.

District 3 Chief Mike Harris estimates that four rescues at the park have cost it $2,000 to $3,000.

That does not include one all-day search for a drowning victim, with District 3 spending $350 to provide lunch for a crew of 23 people from different agencies who were working the incident.

Typically, Pasco Fire is called out by a Washington State Parks ranger, Gear said.

The parks agency has law enforcement jurisdiction at the parks, and it would make sense that they also should be responsible for search and rescue, Gear said.

But not only does the state not have people trained for search and rescue and available at remote Palouse Falls, the state disagrees that it is responsible.

The state is not required to pay for emergency services, said Toni Droscher, spokeswoman for the agency.

Pasco city officials have talked with Washington State Parks and Recreation about getting more cooperation on search and rescue services, said Pasco city manager Dave Zabell. Without resolution, those discussions continue, he said

Search and rescue training for park officials might help, he said. It would provide a much quicker response than calling in extra firefighter department workers in Pasco and then sending the technical rescue crew on the drive out to Palouse Falls.

The city would like to have a contract with the state for reimbursement.

The Pasco Fire Department now has contracts with some businesses outside the city to provide technical rescues, such as at grain elevators.

If the issue cannot be worked out, pursuing legislation to clarify the state’s responsibility might be an option. But it is not a top priority on the city’s current legislative agenda, Zabell said.

The state has taken steps to encourage safer use of the park after two people died in the past spring. One man fell to his death and one went swimming below the falls and drowned.

Droscher said new fencing and signs helped decrease general accidents after they were installed.

The city of Pasco will be watching to see the results when visits to the park increase in the spring.

The fencing does not block people from going into the park’s undeveloped areas, but does provide a single point where visitors can venture onto unofficial trails — unless people hop the fences, which are mostly low enough to allow wildlife passage.

The fencing clearly separates the safer, developed areas of the park from the more hazardous, undeveloped areas of the 100-acre park.

The state has been unwilling to shut off access to undeveloped parts of what is public land.

People who leave the developed area are faced with warning signs posted in English and Spanish.

One yellow and black sign shows a drawing of child slipping as rocks give way at the side of a cliff. “Watch your children!” it says.

“Warning — people have died here,” says another new sign. “We want you to live — Stay back from cliff edge.”

Other signs warn that people who have to be rescued will be billed for costs.

However, Pasco and Franklin County Fire District 3 have not attempted to collect money.

In some cases the victims died, and in other cases the young people who need rescuing likely didn’t have the resources to pay.

The state does understand the frustration and concern of Tri-City area agencies that are responding for search and rescue at the park, Droscher said.

It has increased staffing at the park to talk to visitors about the risks they may be taking, she said.

It also is working on a comprehensive management plan for the park, along with the Lyons Ferry and Lewis and Clark Trail parks in southeast Washington.