Final Plans For Oil Spill Delayed State Agrees To Extend Public Input To Jan. 31
A final solution for an underground oil spill in downtown Spokane is being delayed another two months.
After hearing economic concerns about leaving most of the oil in the earth, the state agreed to extend the public input period to Jan. 31.
Until then, people are invited to comment on Washington Water Power Co.’s proposal to dam its estimated 75,000-gallon spill at First Avenue, pump out about 10 percent of the gooey fuel and monitor the rest for years.
“We’re disappointed,” Rob Strenge, WWP spokesman, said of the latest delay. “It’s a little late in the game. We made a commitment to the community to get this done as quickly as we can.”
The delay, in part, stemmed from a communications breakdown between WWP and the downtown neighborhood committee overseeing the spill work. Both sides report missed appointments scheduled to iron out differences.
Some downtown business owners told the Ecology Department on Monday they fear the WWP oil-containment proposal would permanently scar a crucial two-block area and block development plans.
People also told Ecology Department officials they haven’t had enough time to review the utility’s 1,255-page study, some of which was made public only recently.
Other concerns include a perceived reluctance by WWP to consider advanced methods to clean up, dilute and pump out the oil.
“Why was very promising technology to clean up just such a spill completely shunned?” asked Bert Overland, co-owner of Ecology Warbugs, a firm experienced at removing oil like the Bunker C that seeped out of the defunct WWP steam plant. His company uses microbes to break down the oil.
The spill first was noticed in 1982. Its magnitude was vastly underestimated until studies in 1993 revealed it had leaked about 400 feet north to First Avenue - across the street from The Davenport Hotel.
Little was done about the spill until two years ago. The state and the utility kept the problem secret for more than a decade.
Business owners asked Ecology Department officials during a public hearing Monday to demand that WWP go beyond fulfilling its public health and environmental requirements.
“Cleaning up the oil spill to acceptable standards but leaving it a (wasteland) could be another death toll to downtown - perhaps a very serious one,” said Tanya Guenther, owner of the Sun Tree Inn on Lincoln Street, and head of the Central Steamplant Neighborhood Committee.
Guenther also said the spill area has become a crime zone and the steamplant itself “a canvas” for graffiti.
Business owners want the area transformed into a lively commercial and arts hub.
Ambitious development plans proposed by Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. turn the steam plant into a micro-brewery, covering the rest of the spill area with a treed plaza, a parking garage and an elbow of shops along First Avenue and Post Street.
Peter Mills, geologist for the Hong Kong firm that owns The Davenport, said most of the oil must be removed from the ground to attract development cash.
“Only an idiot would invest in it with the oil sitting there,” he said.
WWP’s Strenge said WWP always has considered the economic facet of its cleanup responsibilities. “We’ve been saying for more than a year we want to be a catalyst for economic development in the area.”
Strenge also said WWP already has agreed to remove any of the fuel found during construction projects.
Patti Carter, a state environmental specialist, said it’s not the state’s job to address economic concerns. “But if we get public comment on that we will have to take that into consideration.”
Downtown property owners are meeting with WWP officials Monday to discuss possible resolutions.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing of building; Map of Metropolitan Mortgage proposed project area