Commissioners Vote Tax For Updated Soil Study Spokane And Deer Park Not Included, But City Councils Could Decide To Join Effort To Replace 1968 Research

Spokane County commissioners agreed this week to tax landowners in small towns, the suburbs and semirural areas for a soil study.

Landowners with 20 acres or less will pay $2 a year for five years to fund the study. That’s in addition to the $3 they already pay to the Spokane County Soil Conservation District.

The rate charged for unplatted lots - those 20 acres or larger - will not increase from the rate of 5 cents an acre for undeveloped land or 10 cents an acre for cultivated fields. That’s the maximum allowed under state law.

So, a homeowner with a quarter acre in the Valley will pay $5 a year to the district. The same person would pay only $1 if he lived on a house on 20 wooded acres.

The tax increase, which expires in 2002, does not apply in the cities of Deer Park and Spokane because they are not part of the soil conservation district created in the 1970s. Other towns are included in the district because they were considered agricultural communities or - in the case of Millwood - asked to be included.

The Deer Park and Spokane city councils may decide to tax their residents and have their lands included in the study, said Rich Baden, conservation district administrator.

Baden said the $2 increase will provide about $850,000 for the study. That, combined with a $500,000 grant from the National Resources Conservation Service (formerly the U.S. Soil Conservation Service) and $60,000 from the county utilities department, will be enough to replace the county’s 1968 soil study, Baden told county commissioners.

Information about soil is used for designing everything from roads to subdivisions. Several engineers told commissioners they turn to the county’s outdated study nearly every day.

With a new study, “we would probably reduce the chance that our basements are going to become swimming pools” because planners would know which areas have poor drainage and are prone to flooding, said Baden. Basement flooding has been a persistent problem this spring in some newer developments on the North Side and South Hill.

The existing study was written to meet the needs of farmers, not developers, urban planners and road builders, said Erv Koller, a biologist for the state Department of Transportation.

“It’s kind of like going to a strange town with a map that’s 10 years out of date, and looking for someone’s house in a new development,” said Koller.

“We need better data,” said Michael Folsom, a consultant and Eastern Washington University professor. “It’s not that the soils have changed since 1968, it’s that our understanding of the soils has improved significantly.”

Other engineers said copies of the county’s study are in short supply and difficult for laymen to read. The new study would be available on CD ROM, which makes searching for specific information easier, said Baden.

Commissioners Kate McCaslin and John Roskelley approved the tax.

Commissioner Phil Harris voted against it because the federal grant prohibits the county from making a profit off the study. Harris wants to be able to sell the information to consultants, engineers and developers.

“The prime users of this document make big, big bucks on what they do,” said Harris.

, DataTimes