SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane voters will decide next month whether to join Spokane County’s Aquifer Protection Area, which the city has not been part of for the past 20 years.
If passed, residents would pay an annual $15 fee on top of their property taxes for the next 20 years. People living in rural areas who use septic tanks would be charged $30 per year.
The protection area monitors the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to Spokane, Spokane Valley and other jurisdictions. Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake have remained in the protection area during the city’s absence…