Safeway Agrees To Well Move, But State May Be Glitch

Safeway has agreed to work with Liberty Lake water officials to move a well away from a gas station it plans to build. But a decision by the Washington Department of Health could scuttle the effort.

Safeway Inc. wants to build a new gas station north of its new supermarket on Liberty Lake Road, but water district officials say it would be too close to a drinking water well.

The filling station would be about 125 feet upstream from the well, which collects about one-third of the drinking water for Liberty Lake during the summer and about half the community’s water in the winter.

Lee Mellish, director of the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District, said a spill at the station could contaminate the entire system because water from all of the district’s wells is pumped into a common reservoir that serves all the homes and businesses in Liberty Lake.

Mellish said Safeway agreed to consider moving the well after the water district complained about the danger of having two 20,000-gallon gas storage tanks so close to the water source.

Safeway did not return phone calls for comment.

In order to drill a new well, the water district would need approval from the state Department of Ecology.

That process, Mellish said, normally takes years.

To get it done faster, the state Department of Health could declare the well near the station a risk to public health, Mellish said.

“We think it is,” Mellish said. “Obviously having 40,000 gallons of gas within a 100 feet of a well or so does pose a significant risk.”

He added: “It’s just a dangerous situation. If they were a 100 yards on the other side of the well … downstream from it, we might not have such a concern.”

But state health officials said the risk doesn’t meet its guidelines for closing a well.

There are thousands of possible sources of contamination above the Spokane-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer already and one new gas station does not raise that risk significantly, said Scott Torpie, an engineer with the state’s drinking water program.

“That’s not to say we are unconcerned about it; we are,” he said. “There is good reason to look carefully at the installation of a gas station next to a public drinking water well.”

Torpie said the Department of Health believes the station poses a risk of groundwater contamination, however, it doesn’t reach the level required for the department to declare it a risk to health and safety. He encouraged the Liberty Lake water district to continue working with Spokane County for local regulations on land use to protect the drinking water supply from threats of contamination.

Mellish said he still hopes the district can strike some agreement with Safeway and the state to move the well. He said he’s not convinced that more safeguards would prevent a fuel spill. The station is already required to have double-lined tanks and a monitoring system to prevent leaks from reaching the aquifer.

Perhaps the Department of Ecology would agree to accelerate its permit process for a a new well, Mellish said.

“I’m not giving up on being able to move the well,” he said.

Safeway has not received final approval from Spokane County to build the eight-island gas station. It must meet all the guidelines of the state Environmental Policy Act.

The comment period on the proposal ended this week.

Carol Frazier, of the county’s building division, said she did not know when the final decision on the permit for the gas station will be made.

Lorie Hutson can be reached at 927-2165 or by e-mail at lorieh@spokesman.com.