My name is Ella Hultman and I am the president of the Environmental Club at Spokane Falls Community College. CC'd on this email is Dr. Michelle Pearson, and Laura Woods, our faculty advisors. Our club has looked over your full EIS document and we have some concerns that we wish to address.
As the most pressing issue, the snowpack on all the mountains in Washington state has been at a historic low. In addition, our summer temperatures have been rising with record breaking or near record breaking highs with drought conditions found state-wide. These factors give us some concerns over what the fire season will look like, as well as the cities plan for handling water usage, especially considering the dire condition of the Spokane river.
- What we want to see is a bigger crack down on the water usage of decorative/recreational activities in the city, such as golf courses. A proposed course of action would be them using less water and implementing drought resistant grasses where they can. Additionally, adding tree cover to the city would help with heat distribution as these summer temperatures continue to rise and would increase air quality as fire seasons become longer and more severe.
Another concern we have is the amount of PFAS that is present in ground water over a majority of the city and surrounding areas.
- We would like to see collaborations with institutes and municipalities to reduce current levels, and make regulation of the usage of PFAS-even if it's at a local level.
Also locally, we want to see an improvement of the maintenance and care of the rivers.
- Most urgently, we want to see efforts made to improve the water quality working towards the reintroduction of local fish populations when the river is deemed safe and access provided for previously local anadromous fish.
We thank you for taking your time to read this email and consider what we wanted
Ella Hultman
Feb 18, 2026
Local Resident
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Dear Municipal Government of Spokane,
My name is Ella Hultman and I am the president of the Environmental Club at Spokane Falls Community College. CC'd on this email is Dr. Michelle Pearson, and Laura Woods, our faculty advisors. Our club has looked over your full EIS document and we have some concerns that we wish to address.
As the most pressing issue, the snowpack on all the mountains in Washington state has been at a historic low. In addition, our summer temperatures have been rising with record breaking or near record breaking highs with drought conditions found state-wide. These factors give us some concerns over what the fire season will look like, as well as the cities plan for handling water usage, especially considering the dire condition of the Spokane river.
- What we want to see is a bigger crack down on the water usage of decorative/recreational activities in the city, such as golf courses. A proposed course of action would be them using less water and implementing drought resistant grasses where they can. Additionally, adding tree cover to the city would help with heat distribution as these summer temperatures continue to rise and would increase air quality as fire seasons become longer and more severe.
Another concern we have is the amount of PFAS that is present in ground water over a majority of the city and surrounding areas.
- We would like to see collaborations with institutes and municipalities to reduce current levels, and make regulation of the usage of PFAS-even if it's at a local level.
Also locally, we want to see an improvement of the maintenance and care of the rivers.
- Most urgently, we want to see efforts made to improve the water quality working towards the reintroduction of local fish populations when the river is deemed safe and access provided for previously local anadromous fish.
We thank you for taking your time to read this email and consider what we wanted
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to say.
With regards,
Ella Hultman