The city of Spokane Wastewater Department is using part of a $1.3 million landscaping improvement project at its wastewater treatment plant at 4401 N. Aubrey L. White Parkway to continue to honor the memory of one of its employees who was killed on the job there.

Mike Cmos, who was 46, was a 24-year veteran maintenance mechanic for the city of Spokane when he fell into a 2-million-gallon wastewater treatment tank after its roof collapsed in May 2004. The facility is located at the entryway at 4401 N. Aubrey L. White Parkway.

The water reclamation facility in Riverside State Park already features a statute of Cmos—who was an avid outdoorsman—sitting on a river bank fishing.

“It’s a fitting tribute,” says Mike Coster, the city’s wastewater management superintendent.

The additional upgrades being performed now involve improvements to landscaping around the entire facility, says, Travis Semler, project manager for general contractor Garco Construction Inc., which was awarded the contract to do the work.

“Everything is designed around the memorial,” Semler says.

Most of the grass in the area surrounding the memorial will be replaced with what’s called xeriscaping, which involves “stripping out the grass and replacing it with native plants and river rock and cutting down on water use,” he says.

Coster says the project also involves using permeable concrete pavers at the site to allow moisture to filter quickly into the soil, cutting down on surface water entering the Spokane River, which borders the treatment facility.

“Riverside State Park is the second most heavily used state park in Washington state,” Coster says. “We’re very cognizant about our location in the midst of an urban park and want to do our part to cut down on pollutants entering the river. With permeable concrete, the water absorbs right off it. This is our first use of it in the area.”

Semler says the landscaping work is about half complete and should be finished just before Thanksgiving. He says planned improvements to the wastewater treatment facility’s sprinkler system will be completed by the end of the year.