PFAS protection: West Plains residents to vote on tax to study and clean local groundwater

West Plains voters will have a say this August in whether they'd be willing to pay a fee to help clean, maintain and monitor the aquifer coursing below their feet.

The Spokane County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to place a measure on the August ballot that will ask voters to approve a $15 per household tax to provide funding for water infrastructure, monitoring and education campaigns for the West Plains Aquifer.

The groundwater is the very same where "forever chemicals" from firefighting exercises at Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base were discovered in 2017. It will include properties stretching from Nine Mile Falls to south of Cheney, including the cities of Medical Lake, Airway Heights and Cheney. Fairchild, which can only be taxed through express permission as a federal property, would not be included in the area.

Around 18,600 parcels would be within the proposed boundaries. Single family homes would pay $15 a year for groundwater use and another $15 if using a septic system. Commercial properties would be charged by meter size, similar to the established aquifer protection rates for the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Aquifer.

The funding created would be split proportionally between the involved municipalities: unincorporated areas of Spokane County, Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights. The county estimates it will generate around $400,000 annually, if approved.

Ahead of the commissioners' vote, some local residents who have been grappling with the tainted water supply for years voiced their skepticism.

West Plains Water Coalition President John Hancock said he likes the idea of funding available for aquifer protection, but he is unsure of how far the funding could go in ensuring clean, available groundwater for decades to come. He would like the county to be public and direct about how the funding collected will be used, and clarity on how future development could be impacted and how water conservation will be tracked and potentially rewarded.

"I'd like to be able to support this, because it's a good idea, but there hasn't been enough discussion so that we all understand what we're getting in for here," Hancock said.

Others, like Palisades resident Julia McHugh, voiced concerns that the tax is effectively asking West Plains residents to pick up the tab for the past mistakes of government entities.

McHugh said she would have liked to see the region included in the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer Protection Area county voters renewed last August. That measure was first approved in 1985, and last year's 20-year renewal extended the boundaries to include the city of Spokane and by extension, the Spokane International Airport, which sits within city boundaries.

"You have left us with a very untenable position, with a ballot issue, with people who are already strapped, already identified as poverty stricken," McHugh said. "So in that way, it's on you, because you excluded us from last August's ballot."

The West Plains Aquifer is a separate system, and serves a different area than the established Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. There is established information on how the latter is used and replenished, and the quality of the water it contains, but the former does not have the same long-term data record to pull from.

The funding provided through the tax, if approved, could allow for more studies to better understand the geology and hydrology of the area, as well as to assist in long-term planning, said Ben Brattebo, Water Programs Manager.

"There isn't a long-term record across the West Plains," Brattebo said. "Water levels may be declining, and it may be declining seasonally; they drop and then come back up with recharge. But we don't have that information and aren't collecting that."

The funding could also provide needed leverage for state and federal grants, Brattebo said. Some could be returned to water users through a conservation incentive program, or pooled between the respective entities for broader regional products, he said.

"This is a 20-year fee, and so it's a very predictable fee that is available for the West Plains area to use for water-related projects over that term," Brattebo said.

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 7:20 PM.