1 week Ago By Tacoma News Tribune
Two environmental groups say they plan to sue Tacoma for allegedly discharging toxic materials from the city’s Central Wastewater Treatment Plant that are poisoning Puget Sound chinook salmon — a federally protected species. The organizations, Northwest Environmental Advocates and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleged that the city is violating the Endangered Species Act by discharging “contaminants of emerging concern” to the Puyallup River estuary and Commencement Bay from its Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, 2201 Portland Ave. E.
The groups contended that studies over the past decade showed the city’s treated sewage reduced the survival rates of the salmon to nearly half of juvenile fish swimming through other Puget Sound estuaries, according to a joint news release released Tuesday. They blamed largely unregulated pollutants that have purportedly decreased growth and caused reproductive issues in the salmon. “Despite scientists’ years of having demonstrated harm to Puget Sound Chinook from Tacoma’s discharge of personal care products, synthetic hormones and industrial chemicals, EPA and the Department of Ecology have done absolutely nothing to prevent it,” Northwest Environmental Advocates Executive Director Nina Bell said in a statement.
“We’re stepping up to stop Tacoma’s pollution because the regulatory agencies have long stepped away from doing their jobs.” The environmental groups submitted a notice to the city on Tuesday that they intend to file a lawsuit in federal court within the next 60 days. The city legally has as many days to respond to the groups’ notice and the concerns raised within.
“We are aware of the notice of intent to file a claim,” city spokesperson Maria Lee said in a statement to The News Tribune. “Given the potential for litigation, we are not able to comment further at this time.” The state’s Department of Ecology, which was named in Bell’s statement, acknowledged that the city maintains a water-quality permit with the agency, but a department spokesperson declined further comment, noting that the agency was not a part of the threatened legal action.
A message left with the EPA, which Bell also named in her statement, was not immediately returned. The Central Wastewater Treatment Plant maintains “one of the most technologically advanced treatment processes in the country” and serves roughly 20,000 customers in Fife, Fircrest and unincorporated Pierce County, according to the city’s webpage on the plant. It receives and treats more than 130 million gallons of wastewater daily during large storm events, has aided the city’s development and was upgraded in 2008, the city says.
Northwest Environmental Advocates and the Center for Biological Diversity said “numerous studies” have indicated contaminants were poisoning the chinook. As such, the two groups claimed that the city has caused an illegal “take” of the endangered species, according to the news release. To “take,” in this context, means to harass, harm or kill the fish.
The groups also alleged Tuesday that Tacoma is violating a permit that allows it to discharge industrial stormwater from its wastewater-treatment plant to surface waters, including the Puyallup River, and is subsequently in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. The notice to the city alleged that the plant’s discharged stormwater has high levels of cloudiness or murkiness and contains elevated amounts of copper and zinc. It also claimed that the city hasn’t appropriately implemented pollution-control methods.
Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that the groups were determined to stop the city from discharging contaminants into Puget Sound in an effort to protect people, salmon and orcas. Southern Resident killer whales, which are also federally endangered, count on the chinook salmon as an important food source, the groups noted. “It’s extremely unfortunate that on a daily basis Tacoma has fouled waterways and harmed protected salmon with toxic wastewater,” Burd said.
.
