A drinking water scare that forced Airway Heights residents to turn away from the tap this spring has prompted renewed talks about Spokane providing more water on the West Plains. “In the short term, we’re getting by,” said Kevin Anderson, public works director for the City of Airway Heights. “The thing is, we don’t have a lot of redundancy in our system right now.” The emergency in Airway Heights has prompted Medical Lake to once again broach the subject of a water agreement with Spokane, which will have to weigh the option of supplying neighboring cities in need with that of supporting economic growth near Spokane International Airport and the city’s own water needs. “We have to have as our first priority our citizens, and our ratepayers within our water system,” said City Councilwoman Amber Waldref, chairwoman of the council’s public works committee. Airway Heights is receiving more than 90 percent of its water from two connections with Spokane’s water system. In May, tests discovered residual chemicals used in firefighting retardant on Fairchild Air Force Base to be above a level federal regulators believe is safe. Spokane’s water is being sold to Airway Heights under the terms of a 1984 agreement between the two cities. Discovery of the chemicals also has prompted concern from nearby Medical Lake, where the drinking water has been deemed safe. That residents in a neighboring city had to rely on bottled water supplies for more than three weeks was not lost on officials in the town of roughly 5,000, said Doug Ross, city administrator for Medical Lake. “We certainly use that as a medium to hopefully get an actual intertie” – or water connection – “and past the discussion phase, where we’ve been for years,” Ross said. Medical Lake’s main operating well lies about 1,000 feet from an Airway Heights well that tested positive for trace amounts of the chemicals that are under review by federal regulators, but have been linked to health problems in laboratory settings. Medical Lake found out about the contamination after being contacted by…