SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — It's been less than a week since a newly-formed clean water advocacy group filed a recall effort against Commissioner Al French. He's now responding to that petition and its numerous allegations for the first time.
French spoke to KREM 2 News a day after releasing a statement about the recall, calling it 'disingenuous,' 'cynical,' and 'a waste of taxpayer resources.'
The petition was filed August 27 by the Clean Water Accountability Coalition, made up of West Plains residents and progressive group Fuse Washington, which endorsed French's District 5 rival Molly Marshall. An attorney for the group, Knoll Lowney, said the actions French is accused of in the document "plain corruption."
Now French says the recall itself is just plain bad politics.
"It's exactly a political ploy," he said Monday. "The fact no other elected officials that had the same knowledge I did have been part of the recall tells you it's a political maneuver."
The knowledge he's talking about is contamination of PFAS, known as forever chemicals, from firefighting foam used at the Spokane International Airport.
In 2017, Fairchild Air Force Base reported PFAS was leaking into private water supplies, prompting water lines to be flushed and bottled water to be provided to residents in nearby Airway Heights.
Reports from December 2017 show the Spokane International Airport contracted a testing of its monitoring wells shortly afterwards, which showed PFAS above state action levels. More testing in 2019 showed the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid at 5200 nanograms per liter in one well near the airport.
"Everybody in 2017 was aware of the presence of PFAS. You had to turn on a TV station, read a newspaper. Everybody was aware of that," French said.
Though the Department of Ecology said it wasn't aware of the contamination near the airport, not until 2023 when it received those sample results sent by a third party following a public records request.
The recall petition blames French for a delayed response in investigating and testing the spread of contamination, saying he blocked commission votes that would've authorized PFAS grant applications and other assistance.
"In fact he blocked government grants that would've tested the wells and provided support for these communities," attorney Knoll Lowney said last week. "So yes, he sabotaged a public health response to this public health crisis."
French says he wasn't the one holding things up.
"[The Department of] Ecology tried to get the county to do work Ecology is really designed to do. They have the resources, they have the legal authority," he said.
French says another reason the studies weren't done sooner: a conflict of interest between the airport and its partial owner, Spokane County.
"There is an interlocal agreement between the city, the county and the airport that says all issues that relate to the airport go to the airport, and so that is where that issue relied at was the airport leadership, not at the county," French said. "The county was conflicted out. Both I and Commissioner [Mary] Kuney came to the same conclusion at the same time using a different path."
French denies any allegation he used his position as commissioner to block or cover up any information about PFAS contamination.
"Absolutely not and there's absolutely no evidence of that anywhere," he said.
He explained the accusations against him have been checked and rechecked by attorneys, for the county and airport "and others."
"There's no foundation for any of the charges," he said.
The recall petition, according to state law, goes to the county prosecutor to draft ballot language. It will then go before a Superior Court judge to determine if it moves on based on sufficiency of the charges.
French says he's confident the court will find in his favor and the recall won't go anywhere.