Highhanded Wwp Response To A Lowdown, Dirty Shame
Ever since it spilled at least 100,000 gallons of oil under a downtown city block, Washington Water Power Co. has become a noted authority on other people’s property values. In press releases, press conferences and advertisements, we have been told that leaving that oil where it is will have no adverse economic effects on downtown Spokane.
Who says so? The people who spilled the oil.
Virtually every property owner in the vicinity of the oil spill has argued that the oil has at the very least placed a psychological burden on that part of town, a burden that, unless handled properly, will hamper much needed redevelopment. This “brownfield effect” is well known in other cities, especially those in serious decline.
The people who worry about this are the private business owners in downtown Spokane who have direct experience with the complicated matter of getting investment for an urban center. The Sandifur family, for example, has been operating in that neighborhood for 60 years. Its members have proved their astuteness as bankers with the success of Metropolitan Mortgage and their devotion to downtown Spokane with their meticulous restoration of the Met.
The Sandifurs have proposed measures that look, at least to this third-party observer, good for the city, good for WWP’s image, and not even that much more expensive than what will be done anyway.
One would think that, in dealing with this sticky situation, Washington Water Power would seek the help and advice of such a long-time, proven neighbor. But it is quite the opposite. WWP’s response to the Sandifurs’ every suggestion: “They are wrong about the economic effects. We know better.”
You may not detect it from reading their press releases, but this has been Washington Water Power’s attitude in dealing with all property owners in the area.
In the meantime, WWP has gone ahead with its own program of renovation in the area. It bought and impressively refurbished the Rodeway Motel. In a press conference, the electric utility announced it will remodel its old steam plant into a shopping mall, a brewery or something.
How can the company invest so boldly when others can’t? Who is their lender? What banker is willing to underwrite development of that building despite the oil?
The answer is that Washington Water Power, the expert on property values, does not need to find a lender. It has its own almost unlimited resources (namely, us) to finance any developments it cares to undertake. Washington Water Power is not worried about the financial stigma of the spill because it is peculiarly invulnerable to such a problem.
Other property owners are not so fortunate. They must appear before skeptical bankers and laboriously explain the presence of the oil, the hydrology of Spokane, what “institutional controls” (translation: “Don’t ever dig here!”) are, and how the same company that initially estimated the spilled oil at about 1 percent of its known volume can be so sure it now knows the full extent of the problem.
And before they get done explaining, the banker’s eyes begin to glaze over. Getting people to invest in urban centers is not easy in any case. Imagine making this sale.
Fourteen years ago Washington Water Power vastly underestimated the amount of oil it released below ground. Today it is vastly underestimating the amount of economic turmoil it has released above ground.
If we don’t require that this problem be solved right now, while we have the chance, we risk finding out later - perhaps 14 years hence - that Washington Water Power has made another catastrophic miscalculation that has hurt Spokane severely.
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