Valley council considers water protection measures

The Spokane Valley City Council is considering an ordinance to better protect the drinking water that sits below the city and give the staff some muscle to enforce stormwater rules.

Spokane Valley depends on drywells and swales to clean stormwater before it reaches the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for most of the region. The proposed ordinance would require that swales and drywells be built as new neighborhoods and buildings are being constructed instead of putting that responsibility on homeowners later in the process. Oftentimes, the devices never get built, said John Hohman, the city’s senior development engineer.

“The meat of the ordinance is to make sure these are being constructed,” he said. “They would be done before (homeowners or businesses) occupy a project so it’s not the new buyer’s problem.”

Spokane Valley inherited Spokane County’s stormwater ordinance when the city incorporated two years ago, but technology has improved since those regulations were written. The city hired a consultant last summer to study just how quickly water drains through the porous Spokane Valley soil, enabling the city to write a more refined ordinance that applies directly to the natural environment within the city limits.

The new ordinance would require that homeowners maintain grassy swales so the sod and its root system pull toxics from the water before it drains to the aquifer.

If swales and drywells are not maintained, the city’s code enforcement department could take action.

“We’re trying to take a step back in how we do business … to improve the treatment that we’re getting,” Hohman said. “The real goal is to clean up the water and protect our aquifer.”

The council is expected to discuss the ordinance again next week.

In other news, the council finalized the last two agreements between the city and private developers on the Pines/Mansfield road project. Now a total of nine developers have agreed to help pay for a $4 million project that will make the Pines Road near the Interstate 90 interchange and Mansfield Road safer and less congested.

Several proposed construction projects had been on hold because of the traffic problems, but applications for that work should be able to move forward now that the funding is in place. Because the last two developers signed on, the city’s contribution to the project will decrease from about $100,000 to about $50,000.