Foul-up clouds fluoridation issue

The city of Spokane apologized to fluoridation supporters Tuesday for a misunderstanding that caused the group to be about 5,000 signatures short of what they need to get on the Nov. 2 ballot.

A group called Fluoridation Works wants voters to approve adding fluoride to Spokane’s drinking water to prevent childhood tooth decay.

Without the required signatures, the Spokane City Council could still put the issue directly on the ballot.

Council member Brad Stark said Tuesday he is drafting a resolution to that effect so the council will have a chance to discuss it.

“For the Fluoridation Works group, as far as they knew, they were living up to their part of the deal,” Stark said. “They’ve collected 3,100 signatures in the community; we at least should have the conversation.”

Fluoridation supporters thought they needed only 2,573 valid signatures when they turned in petitions to the Spokane City Clerk’s office on Monday.

So they were happy to be turning in 3,100 signatures, just meeting the deadline of 90 days before the election.

City Clerk Terri Pfister also thought they needed 2,573 valid signatures, or 5 percent of the votes cast in the last general city election.

But double-checking the city charter on Tuesday, Pfister and city attorneys determined otherwise.

Because the upcoming November election is a special election, the group actually needs 7,718 valid signatures, or 15 percent of the votes cast last time.

General city elections are in odd-numbered years. Special elections are in even-numbered years.

Mayor Jim West broke the news to a member of the fluoridation group, said Marlene Feist, spokeswoman for the city.

“We feel really awful about this,” Feist said.

“We want to help citizens with the initiative process.”

John Robideaux, chairman of Fluoridation Works, said the pro-fluoridation group will meet to decide what to do next.

The group has raised about $18,000 and spent about a third of that on the petition drive.

Robideaux, the fluoridation supporter, and Pfister, the city clerk, agree the misunderstanding began when the pro-fluoridation group met with city officials, including Pfister.

Robideaux said his group may have first mentioned the lower number.

“We had figured it out and we had mentioned it several times,” Robideaux said. “No one had disputed it.”

Robideaux said supporters are disappointed.

Supporters call fluoridation a cost-effective way to prevent childhood tooth decay.

Foes question the safety of fluoride compounds used in water supplies.

Fluoridating Spokane’s water would cost almost $2.5 million upfront and about $330,000 a year after that, according to a recent independent study commissioned by the city’s water department.

City water customers would pay an additional $12 a year for three years and $4.80 a year more after that, the city estimates.

Spokane voters have rejected fluoridation three times: in 1969, 1984 and 2000.

Post Falls is getting into the irrigation business.

City voters overwhelmingly approved a measure Tuesday to allow the city to spend $9.5 million to buy up to 1,000 acres of farmland during the next 10 years. The city wants to irrigate the land with treated wastewater, the same effluent that’s currently dumped into the Spokane River.

“I’ll be able to sleep tonight,” Post Falls Public Works Director Terry Werner said. “I’ve been sweating this.”

Of the 1,048 ballots cast, 656 residents voted in favor of the proposal, which won’t increase residents’ sewer bills.

The debate about the safety of land application exploded just days before the election, when a citizens group began telling people that the city planned to dump raw sewage on the Rathdrum Prairie. At one point, Werner’s granddaughter was told that her grandpa was going to pollute everyone’s drinking water.

Citizens for the Prairie also violated state and federal campaign laws, but the city decided not to pursue charges if the group fixed the problems, such as including attribution on fliers and reporting who was donating money and how that cash was spent.

“Bummer,” said Connie Firkins of the Citizens for the Prairie group, after learning of the results. “We’re still concerned about how they are going to apply it. It’s a scary thing they are planning to do.”

Firkins said the group, which is mostly county residents who couldn’t vote in the city election, plans to stay involved in the planning process.

The group argued that the first 500 acres that the city plans to buy south of Hayden Avenue, between Chase and Greensferry roads, is too rocky and the effluent will drain straight into the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer that is the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people. The East Greenacres Irrigation District is worried the effluent could contaminate its five wells in the area.

City officials said that land application will secure open space on the Rathdrum Prairie while reducing the amount of effluent put into the river. About 2,500 homes with individual septic systems could be built on the land if it were developed.

Proponents include the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Panhandle Health District and various local conservation groups. They agree that land application is a good use of effluent because the plant roots act as a secondary treatment process. The roots absorb nutrients, such as phosphorus, that remain in treated wastewater.

Post Falls was looking for alternatives for using treated wastewater because the federal government is limiting how much effluent can go into the Spokane River. And land application seems like a good solution. Unlike soil, the river can’t absorb many of the nutrients left in treated wastewater.

Werner said the next step is for the City Council to reaffirm its interest in buying the farmland. The city will also work with the DEQ to ensure that the Hayden Avenue property is adequate for land application. The city has already put $50,000 toward the purchase of the land to ensure it wasn’t sold to another buyer.

It could take up to five years before land application begins.

After neighbors and the irrigation district complained, Post Falls hired a local hydrologist to test the soil and found that 85 percent of the 500 acres is suitable for land application. The remaining land, as neighbors had predicted, is too rocky, and the current landowners use it for cow pasture instead of irrigated farm land. The city said it wouldn’t use these rocky spots for irrigation and will instead put a double-lined holding pond in the area and turn the rest into open space.

The idea isn’t to use the land just for open space and irrigation but to eventually develop walking trails around the perimeter.

More than 1,900 communities, including the University of Idaho and Washington State University, use treated effluent to irrigate parks, golf courses and playing fields.

Post Falls residents’ sewer bills won’t go up because the city plans to extend its current debt.

Residents are currently paying off three bonds that built and improved the current wastewater plant. The largest of those payments is set to expire next year. The city wants to extend that debt and keep using the additional sewer rate money to buy the property.