Convention Center gets soils grant

The Spokane Convention Center expansion project will receive a grant from the city of Spokane to evaluate soil contamination on part of the construction site.

The Spokane Public Facilities District, which owns the Convention Center, will receive up to $25,000 from the city’s Brownfields Assessment Grant program to assist with sampling and analysis of contaminated soils at the project site. That work will determine what cleanup is needed. The $55 million expansion project is being developed on a site formerly used for industrial and commercial operations, including railroad activities.

The grant money comes as welcome news at a time when costs for excavation and cleanup are running more than $1 million over budget.

“We are taking some efforts to mitigate that through grants,” said Matt Walker, project manager for the PFD during a Tuesday meeting. Despite the cost overruns, contractors say the project now is several weeks ahead of schedule, due in part to the unseasonably warm weather.

The precise amount of money to be granted by the city will be determined after the site is evaluated, said Kevin Twohig, PFD executive director.

In May 2002, the federal Environmental Protection Agency awarded the city $200,000 in grant money to assist with assessment and $800,000 in loan money to help with cleanup of contaminated sites. Additional funding since then has lifted the “Revolving Loan Fund” to $1.4 million, said Marlene Feist, spokeswoman for the city. About $150,000 of the grant money has been applied for or distributed, but none of the loan money has been tapped, Feist said.

The city grant will pay to assess soil contamination north and south of the DoubleTree Hotel. A walkway will be built just north of the hotel to join the new 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall to the rest of the Convention Center.

The PFD also plans to apply for a state Department of Ecology grant to help pay for cleanup, but can’t do so until that work is complete, said Kay Sieck, the PFD’s assistant project manager. Because construction on the walkway isn’t scheduled to begin until the fall, that application likely won’t be submitted until mid-2006, Sieck said. The grant process includes factors such as: recycling of materials, degree of contamination, amount of clean fill soil needed and the amount of soil and water testing needed, Sieck said.