Read the full article by Melissa Luck and Derek Strom (KXLY)
“SPOKANE, Wash – The Washington Department of Ecology says City of Spokane, Spokane County and Spokane International Airport are not complying with legal orders, delaying the cleanup of PFAS contaminants on the West Plains.
Dept of Ecology is directing cleanup of contaminants left behind from firefighting foam used by Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane International Airport and Spokane County Fire Station 10-5.
Dept of Ecology sent a letter to the entities Tuesday, saying the entities ‘have made insufficient progress’ and are non-compliant in several areas, including ‘insufficient well sampling frequency’ and putting roadblocks in place to screen whether a property should be included in testing for the PFAS materials.
‘The idea that there are 900 homes in the zone that Ecology defines as trouble. It should be no surprise to the airport that the first 17 homes had PFAS, so hurry up, do them all,’ said John Hancock, the president of the West Plains Water Coalition.
Ecology is also accusing the entities of leaving the state’s comments out of draft clean-up documents.”…