County Wants To Pull Plug On Creek Cleanup

The Latah County Commission no longer wants to continue as a member of the Paradise Creek Watershed Management Committee.

After focusing for nearly five years on cleaning up Paradise Creek, officials said it was time to bring the project to a close.

“I don’t think we should dump millions of dollars into making Paradise Creek into something that it will never be,” Commissioner Shirley Greene said. “We can’t just dump money down the drain.”

Greene contended that common sense must be applied to Paradise Creek efforts, and Tom Townsend, chairman of the Latah County Waterways Committee and a four-year member of the watershed panel said the effort should be wrapped up in light of new state legislation creating watershed advisory groups to handle clean water issues.

The bi-state effort that includes Latah and Whitman counties, the cities of Moscow and Pullman, the University of Idaho and Washington State University has spent millions of dollars to improve water quality in the creek.