Spokane to rejoin Aquifer Protection Area if voters approve

When Spokane County asks voters to reauthorize the 40-year-old aquifer protection area for another 20 years, the city of Spokane will be included for the first time since 2004.

If approved, every plot within the protection area will be charged $15 a year for programs to protect the aquifer, which supplies drinking water to approximately 500,000 people. The Spokane County Commission will have authority to place the measure on an upcoming ballot.

The Spokane City Council voted unanimously Monday to request the county to include the city in the upcoming, unscheduled vote to renew the aquifer protection area.

The Spokane County Aquifer Protection Area was created in 1985 to protect the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer from pollution, primarily by expanding sewer systems and ending the region’s reliance on septic systems. Voters at the time overwhelmingly approved to pay the fee, which cost homeowners $15 a year for homes connected to a sewer system and $30 for homes still on septic tanks.

The program was highly successful at its goals at the time. When the Aquifer Protection Area was first approved, there were about 40,000 septic tanks in the “aquifer sensitive area,” including 2,700 in the city of Spokane. By 2004, there had been a net reduction of 20,000 septic tanks, of which fewer than 350 were left in city limits.

The city pulled out of the protection area, arguing it needed more control over the funds paid by its residents, though its leaders ultimately decided against creating its own fee system. When voters narrowly approved renewing the aquifer protection fees in 2004, the city of Spokane wasn’t included.

But the focus has shifted from sewage to modern pollutants, and city leaders have requested to rejoin the aquifer protection area. The new agreement would only allow city ratepayer funds to leave the city for limited education and testing programs that benefit the entire aquifer system, but not for subsidizing infrastructure in other cities, according to Marlene Feist, director of Spokane’s public works division.

If voters approve reauthorizing the aquifer protection area for another 20 years, it would cost $15 per year for single-family homes connected to water. Multifamily and commercial properties would be charged based on the size of their water meters.

The protection area also imposes an additional maximum $15 annual fee for homes not connected to municipal sewer systems. Only the 300 or so homes among the city’s 75,000 utility accounts are still not connected to the city sewer system and would have to pay the fee .