Mosquito control proposal eradicated by commissioners

Spokane County commissioners swatted down a proposed mosquito control district Tuesday.

Commissioners voted against allowing voters to decide whether the proposed district should be created, saying they believe state law gives too much power to such districts and allows them to infringe on the rights of property owners. They suggested finding alternative ways to control the mosquito population and promised to lobby the Legislature to change what Commissioner Phil Harris called a “terribly bad” law.

Six citizens spoke out against forming the district while only one person – Health Officer Dr. Kim Thorburn of the Spokane Regional Health District – supported it. A second person had submitted a letter backing it.

Thorburn and the Board of Health had brought the proposal forward as a way to reduce the likelihood of spreading the West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne disease that can cause headaches, fever, nausea, vision loss, paralysis and, in rare cases, death.

Thorburn envisioned the district using larvicides in water bodies where mosquitoes lay their eggs. But the law would have allowed the district to attack the adult mosquito population if it wanted and collect an unlimited amount of money from residents after the district’s first year of operation.

That bugged citizens, whose arguments against the district ranged from environmental concerns to opposition to the tax to an emotional reminder of the intent of the country’s Founding Fathers.

“This is really an issue of freedom,” Spokane Valley dentist Grant Rodkey said. “I’m starting to wonder what country we’re in.”

Rodkey didn’t like that the law would have allowed district employees to come on his property without permission to search for mosquito breeding grounds and eradicate them if they existed.

“This is a sledgehammer to swat a fly – or in this case, a mosquito,” he said.

The law requires mosquito control districts to give property owners notice before coming onto their land, though, and give them time to abate the problem themselves.

The district would have encompassed all of Spokane County, including the incorporated cities, although the city of Liberty Lake submitted a letter requesting it be excluded.

Had the commissioners put the district on the ballot and had voters approved it, citizens also would have been asked to OK a first-year levy of 2 cents per $1,000 valuation, or $3 a year on a $150,000 home. That would have raised $400,000 to pay for a director and assistant, a truck, gas, equipment, larvicide and seasonal help.

But even if the levy failed, the district’s board would have had the power to collect as much money as it needed to control the mosquito population in the second year and ever after. Dissolving the district would have required a two-thirds majority of electors.

Jeanne Dammarall, of the Neighborhood Alliance, spoke in favor of controlling the mosquito population, but was against forming a district to do it. After the meeting, Thorburn said she would look into alternatives with the commissioners.

Larvicides already are used on public land, but Thorburn said much of the breeding problems exist on private property and forming a district is the only legal way to tackle that part of the problem.

West Nile virus has killed 362 people in the United States since 2003. The disease has been detected in animals in Washington, but the state is the only of the continental 48 that has never had a human case of the virus.