Although sewage treatment plants are the largest source of unsafe levels of nitrogen pollution in Puget Sound, in a new 5-year permit, the Washington Department of Ecology proposes to let them keep on polluting.  Puget Sound is already suffering from nitrogen and toxic pollution that is suffocating marine life, causing massive algal blooms and exploding populations of jellyfish, and fundamentally changing the food web.  That’s the definition of a “dead zone.”

Problems like Puget Sound’s are why the Clean Water Act requires reductions of unsafe pollution levels.   But, after decades of foot-dragging, Ecology’s only proposed regulatory action is to issue a permit to allow 58 sewage treatment plants to keep discharging at current levels—with no reductions.

Ecology’s proposed permit will not protect Puget Sound.  Join with us to stop Washington’s business-as-usual approach to Puget Sound and help save the Chinook salmon and Puget Sound’s resident orcas.

Ecology is taking public comments on its draft Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit—now through August 2.