City of Airway Heights recently issued the following announcement on February 8
(Airway Heights, WA) --- The City of Airway Heights (CAWH/City) has introduced an interim ordinance requiring all applications for new water service connections to undergo a water concurrency certification process. The requirement, which was adopted by CAWH City Council on February 7, 2022, will ensure that the city’s water supply is sufficient to fulfill development-related demand while still providing an adequate supply for existing water customers.
In May 2017, CAWH discovered its domestic water supply was impacted by PFOS and PFOA chemicals from a fire-training site on Fairchild Air Force Base. Since then, CAWH has been buying water from the City of Spokane while seeking additional and better options to provide safe drinking water for residents and businesses, and to accommodate growth.
“Ensuring an adequate supply of safe drinking water for residents and businesses is our top priority,” says City Manager Albert Tripp. “We are making progress on a permanent solution to fulfilling our city’s water needs. In the meantime, we have a contract with the City of Spokane for a specified amount of water, and we need to be judicious about how we use that water. This concurrency ordinance will help us use our water supply wisely and responsibly.”
Concurrency refers to the timely provision of public facilities and services relative to the demand for them. In the case of CAWH water supply, maintaining concurrency means ensuring adequate water supply to serve development without decreasing levels of service below locally established minimums.
While the ordinance is in place, all water permit applications will be subject to a concurrency test—an analysis of an applicant’s impact on the city water system facilities and the amount of available public water.
Findings from a recently completed analysis of alternative water supply solutions point to the development of a new well in an uncontaminated aquifer as the most sustainable solution for providing safe and reliable drinking water for CAWH water customers. The City is pursuing state and federal funding for this capital project and is actively working to address external barriers so that it can begin work as soon as possible.
For questions regarding concurrency certification, contact Airway Heights Building Department, at (509) 244-5514 or bldgdept@cawh.org . Please also review our FAQ.
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