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Washington Ignores Clean Water Act
The Problem
Fixing water pollution problems in Puget Sound requires that Washington and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carry out the Clean Water Act as Congress intended. The law requires Washington—with EPA approval— to take several steps:
• Adopt water quality standards that are the measuring sticks for unsafe levels of pollution.
• Compare water quality information to those water quality standards to identify which waters have unsafe levels of pollution levels.
• Issue, for each of those identified waters, “pollution diets” (known as Total Maximum Daily Loads or “TMDLs”) to establish which pollution sources must reduce how much pollution.
• Make sure that pollution sources carry out those reductions.
Unfortunately, however, both Washington and EPA have a long history of failing to meet all of these requirements.
Poor water quality in Puget Sound is a problem. The failure of regulatory agencies to use state and federal laws—such as Washington’s 1945 “AKART” law and the federal Clean Water Act—to fix the deteriorating water quality in Puget Sound is part of that problem.
How NWEA is making a difference
NWEA seeks to enforce all aspects of the Clean Water Act to clean up water pollution in Washington, with a special focus on the nitrogen pollution in Puget Sound that is sucking oxygen out of the water. Here’s what we have been doing:
• Settled a lawsuit in 2018 against EPA for approving Washington water quality standards that allow the state to raise the temperature and lower the level of dissolved oxygen without federal review and approval.
• Sued EPA in 1991, and again in 2019, for failing to develop TMDL pollution diets for all the waters in Washington that have unsafe levels of pollution.
• Sued EPA in 2019 for failing to issue an updated and complete list of all the waters in Washington that violate water quality standards.
• Filed suit against EPA in 2020 for failing to issue water quality standards for toxics to protect threatened and endangered species.
• Settled a lawsuit in 2021 against EPA for its failed oversight of Washington’s nonpoint source program to control polluted runoff from sources such as logging and farming.
• Sued Washington for issuing discharge permits to Puget Sound sewage treatment plants that fail to meet Washington’s law that requires modern sewage treatment, known as “AKART” (“all known, available, and reasonable treatment”).
What You Can Do
• Sign up for NWEA Action Alerts
• Sign up for Ecology emails
• Connect your friends and family to the issue via social media
• Become a member of NWEA—with or without a financial contribution
Washington and federal agencies will propose significant actions over the coming year—actions that are guaranteed to fall well short of protecting Puget Sound. These agencies invite public comment, creating an opportunity for you to add your voice to the demand for change. Too often, agency actions are shaped to benefit special interests, not the public interest. That needs to stop. A growing population and climate change bring even more urgency to the longstanding need for strong regulatory actions to protect Puget Sound, its marine life, and its beaches. Here are some key opportunities to be heard:
Action Needed Now!
Washington Ecology: Mandate Modern Sewage Treatment for Puget Sound
After 20 years plus of foot–dragging, Ecology plans to allow 58 sewage treatment plants to keep discharging at current levels instead of making them reduce the amount of pollution they dump in Puget Sound.
In other words, Washington is not following the law and not protecting 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.
Victory for Puget Sound
EPA Must Act on Toxics, Court Orders
