In 1985, Spokane city and county voters overwhelmingly agreed to pay an assessment each year, for 20 years, to protect the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, sole source of much of our area’s drinking water.

Elected officials didn’t ever hear much grumbling about the fee, which cost homeowners $15 a year for dwellings connected to the sewer and $30 a year for dwellings on septic tanks. Citizens seemed united in their belief that preserving the aquifer was a valuable common goal and worth the money.

The $45 million collected over the past two decades has been used mostly to eliminate septic tanks and monitor the quality of the water in the aquifer.

On Nov. 2, only county voters outside the city of Spokane will be asked to say yes to the fee for another 20 years. Spokane County Proposition 1 calls for the creation of the Spokane County Aquifer Protection Area. It continues the annual $15 to $30 fees, and the money will be used for water quality improvement, septic tank removal and sanitary sewage collection and treatment. This will include offsetting part of the cost of building a proposed regional wastewater treatment plant, if the plant is given the go-ahead.

Spokane city voters will not see this issue on their ballots. (Proposition 1 on city of Spokane ballots is a street bond issue.) City officials voted to no longer participate in the program with the county. The aquifer fee will disappear from city property owners’ bills when the current program expires at the end of 2005. City officials felt they needed more control over how city money was spent in the county to protect the aquifer. Right now, they plan to monitor and protect the aquifer out of existing city utility programs and funds.

The aquifer has never been in need of more attention. In the next few years, it will take a united effort across municipal, county and state lines to truly preserve the integrity of this valuable resource. The parting of ways by city and county officials on this aquifer protection effort comes at an inopportune time, but this shouldn’t stop county voters from continuing this reasonable annual fee.