Developer backs away from heat-exchange wells

A developer who wanted to sink hundreds of heat-exchange wells for a Liberty Lake development has backed away from that idea. Whitewater Creek Inc. of Hayden alerted the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District this week that it would pursue other options to heat and cool homes, apartments and commercial buildings in the Lakemore development planned for East Appleway Avenue, said BiJay Adams, the district’s general manager. The sewer and water district had required an environmental analysis for the project, amid concerns that improper maintenance of the closed-loop well system could pollute the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. The project called for 700 wells to be drilled, each 450-feet deep.