About Us
The West Plains Water Coalition is an all-volunteer, local non-profit dedicated to learning more about the West Plains PFAS water crisis, and to giving our neighbors a stronger voice in solutions. We are a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
We began in Spring 2023, after Deep Creek resident Marcie Zambryski lost her husband, her live-in mother and two of her dogs to cancers—and then the Air Force called, warning her not to drink her water. She and her neighbor John Hancock looked into the water situation, discovering that PFAS firefighting foam pollution from Fairchild Air Force Base, six miles up Deep Creek, had contaminated not only Marcie’s well, but those of many other neighbors. Several neighbors also had unexplained, serious illnesses in their households, and most had been alerted by the Air Force.
A December 2022 living room meeting between neighbors confirmed the alarm, and West Plains Water Coalition was born. The nearby Friends of Palisades made a large seed-money contribution, and one of its members undertook a Freedom of Information Act inquiry that launched the Washington State Department of Ecology’s investigation of PFAS at Spokane International Airport.
A visit to a community PFAS meeting in Selah showed us that Spokane is not alone, as that town suffers PFAS well contamination from the nearby Yakima Army Training Ground. Washington Department of Health staffers we met at that Selah meeting scheduled an official Listening Session in Airway Heights. Meanwhile, John Hancock and Mo Noder joined a Fairchild group called the Restoration Advisory Board, an EPA-sponsored public committee tracking PFAS progress at Fairchild Air Force Base.
Within three months, aided by public meetings and old-fashioned neighbor conversations, the Coalition’s membership grew to more than two hundred. In July 2023, the Coalition was awarded a two-year Public Participation Grant to get the West Plains public engaged in PFAS education and activities.
Media coverage followed, with a string of newspaper, radio, television and online articles both within Spokane and far beyond. The Coalition has already exceeded its initial goals as more and more community members rally to solve this daunting challenge.
PFAS is a “forever chemical”. This work is a long pull up a steep hill. If you can spare some time, please join in.
Board of Directors
John Hancock, President
hancock@westplainswater.org
John Hancock’s PFAS activism began in the fall of 2022 when a neighbor sought advice about Air Force water trouble. He’s a member of Fairchild’s Restoration Advisory Board, and lives nearby in the forested Deep Creek Canyon on Spokane’s West Plains.
His non-profit executive leadership and consulting career included projects funded by the Arts Councils of Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, California, and Washington, National Endowment for the Arts, WA State Capital Funding; National Trust for Historic Preservation, HUD, USDA, City of Spokane, and Spokane County.
Since 1980, his topic endeavors include symphony orchestras and opera, public housing, Main Market Coop, Boy and Girl Scouts, veterans with PTSD, music lessons for incarcerated teens, homelessness, tattoo removal for former gang members, Smart Justice, health care, biofuels, hospice, farmers market and community gardens, acoustics and theater renovation (Spokane’s Fox Theater), real estate development, digital CRM design in ticketing and fundraising, iTunes music distribution, and a health clinic in Tanzania. His Deep Creek Consulting served 50+ non-profit organizations in Eastern Washington and North Idaho in project development, grantwriting and fundraising, strategic planning, executive search, and governance.
Rick Hansen, Treasurer
Rick Hansen is a Strategic and Operational business consultant for organizations looking to remove chaos from their operations. He offers guidance and coaching assistance to people, helping them be successful, which in turns benefits them and the company they work for. He has managed two startup companies in technology and healthcare prior to offering his consulting services. When not helping his clients, he and his wife Anya are Land Stewarts of 40 acres of forest land being reforested after a wildfire took out 39 acres of trees.
I thank John for offering this opportunity to be a part of an organization whose purpose is to make the lives of the people it serves better. To help correct and repair a system that has let the people down when their sole responsibility was to protect them. Together, we will make a positive and meaningful difference.
Jim McCurdy
Professor Emeritus of the Gonzaga Las School, Jim first practiced in natural resources, environment, and Indian Law. His teaching areas included sports law, environmental dispute resolution, oil and gas law, and administrative law. He has worked on special projects with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In addition to his appointment by the governor of Washington to represent the state on the Environmental Improvement Basin Commission, McCurdy has a special interest in mediation of disputes and served as a member of the Boards of Directors of Northwest Conflict Management Center and Interplayers Theater.
Gail Oneal
Gail Oneal RN, PhD has been a nurse for 44 years, with over 32 years of active clinical practice and 20 years of teaching nursing students in undergraduate and graduate programs moving to full-time nursing education and research in 2011. Gail’s interests in health effects due to environmental risks and working with people to reduce exposures have become personal, since she’s lived in the West Plains area for 28 years.
Tim Sweet
Tim retired in 2016 from a landscape design/build firm that he founded in 1983. He has served in board positions with the Associated General Contractors, the Lands Council, Unitarian Church, and the Inland NW Land Conservancy. Tim is a proud member of Rotary Club 21 and actively supports their efforts in the Spokane community. His other interests include bicycling, paddling, and gardening. From his home in the Palisades neighborhood, he loves wild places, whether they be urban or remote.
Membership
The West Plains Water Coalition is an all-volunteer local Washington non-profit. We need your help in this important work. If you can spare some time, please introduce yourself in email: info@westplainswater.org
THE WEST PLAINS WATER COALITION STANDS AGAINST AND DOES NOT SUPPORT, ADVOCATE OR PRACTICE DISCRIMINATION BASED ON AGE, ETHNICITY, GENDER, NATIONAL ORIGIN, DISABILITY, RACE, SIZE, RELIGION, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, OR SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND.
Suggestions Welcome
As a community we are stronger together. If you have an idea, we want to hear about it. Use the button send us your suggestion.