What Happened to the Whitewater Park?
August 25th, 2010
Spokane River Forum Staff
A common refrain from people going on Meet Me at the River trips is “what happened to the Whitewater Park?” The short answer is that Friends of the Falls and other proponents continue to actively work on the project. Building of the park, however, is unlikely before 2012.
Reasons for the extended development schedule became apparent at a Spokane City Council meeting on Monday, August 23rd. The Council passed a resolution reaffirming support of the park. The resolution is part of the City requesting an extension and amendment of a state Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) grant of over $500,000 to help build the park.
Unless extended, the grant will run out at the end of December. To date, no funds have been spent. A key reason for the delay is that the process of permitting the park ended up being longer, more difficult and more costly then planned. Nine different permits and plans need to be approved by seven different agencies to proceed.
One of these, a shoreline conditional use permit, is needed from the City of Spokane. In 2009, the City planning department made a determination of environmental significance for this permit. This triggered an unanticipated need for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
An EIS “describes the positive and negative environmental effects of proposed agency action – and cites alternative actions.” If environmental impacts of significance are identified, mitigation measures and/or alternatives must be used.
LeRoy Eadie, Spokane City Parks Director, commented that he hoped the EIS “could be done in four to six months and cost between $50,000 and $100,000.” While others estimate it may take longer and cost more, the Parks Department is likely to have a much better idea after selecting a vendor to conduct the EIS.
“Scoping” will be one of the first elements of the EIS. Here, different agencies indicate potential environmental concerns they wish addressed. Of particular concern to anglers and environmentalists are spawning and habitat effects on native red band trout, which have been in a precipitous decline over the past fifteen years.
At the City Council meeting to pass the resolution, Trout Unlimited and other organizations suggested that the EIS be delayed until an Avista study of fisheries and spawning areas in this area is released this winter. Avista is doing this study as part of implementing their new FERC license for the Spokane River Hydroelectric Project. Said Harvey Morrison from Trout Unlimited, “We’re not against a whitewater park, we just think this is likely to be the wrong location. We’d rather see the grant funding on the ground as soon as possible to address access, facility and restoration needs at this location that don’t require this type of major in river work.”
Echoed Mike Petersen, Executive Director of the Lands Council, “I am concerned that the proposed location of the Whitewater park is not going to pass the environmental test since all indications are that it is a critical spawning area for the rare red band trout. I’d like to focus on what we can do now with available grant money to improve the existing access and facilities conditions.”
Councilman Jon Snyder, who proposed the resolution, noted the years, time and diligence spent by Friends of the Falls to secure funding for the whitewater park. Snyder sees the EIS as the means to resolve outstanding environmental issues in a way that’s “very collaborative and with all interests at the table.” The whitewater park would be the first in the state of Washington, an opportunity for Spokane residents and visitors that Snyder would like to see realized.
Tom Pratt, president of Friends of the Falls agrees. “We’re confident the result of an EIS is that we will be able to proceed. If it turns out differently, the Great Gorge plan identifies other initiatives to improve the area.”
Pratt also noted that, on average, “Whitewater Parks around the country have taken six years to get through the permitting and development process. We’re in year six, so we’re not that far off.”
From Spokane Riverkeeper Bart Mihailovich’s perspective, the dilemma being faced “is that we support river recreation of all kinds as the best form of outreach and education. But making sure that the best science dictates such decisions is equally important.”
Councilwoman Amber Waldref clarified with Eadie that reallocation of the grant funds would be done by moving funding for building of the park to the line item supporting permitting, which will now include the EIS. To the extent this creates a need to raise additional funds to build the park, Pratt commented Friends of the Falls will help lead that effort.
Pratt is also leading development of a new group that will be called Friends of Whitewater Park. The purpose of this group is to put the infrastructure in place that will help maintain the Whitewater Park after it’s developed.