Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued compliance orders to address King County’s and the City of Seattle’s violations of federal Clean Water Act wastewater discharge permits.
King County and Seattle have combined sewer overflows (CSOs) that carry wastewater and storm water to sewage treatment plants before being discharged into nearby water bodies. These systems can overflow during heavy rainstorms, causing water to flow directly into the Puget Sound and surrounding bodies of water with little or no treatment.
The EPA estimates that 1.94 billion gallons of untreated sewage and pollution runoff are discharged annually from Seattle and King County CSO outfalls, carrying high levels of grease, petroleum and chemicals into Puget Sound and tributary waters.
“What we are requiring of the city and county is clear: They must take steps to reduce the volume and frequency of overflows,” Michelle Pirzadeh, the EPA’s acting regional administrator in Seattle, said in a press release.
City of Seattle Compliance Order and Response
The compliance order requires the city to prepare several plans, including: an overflow emergency response plan, a plan to ensure the collection system is cleaned in a more systematic way, a plan to create more collection system storage to prevent some CSO overflows from discharging, a plan to reduce the number of basement backups and a plan to reduce the number of dry weather overflows. The EPA expects that the city will be in compliance by March 2012.
In written response to the compliance order, Trish Rhay, Seattle’s director of drainage and wastewater, said that Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is cooperating with the EPA, and has been working actively to address the city’s sewer overflow issues. Noting that Seattle plans on spending as much as $500 million in the next 10 years to correct the city’s CSO problems, Rhay said SPU’s improved maintenance program has already reduced dry weather overflows from 15 in 2006–2007 to two in 2008-2009.
King County Compliance Order and Response
The compliance order requires the county to submit a plan to observe and document some of King County’s CSO outfalls after rainfall to ensure there is no debris discharged and to upgrade the Elliot West CSO Treatment Plant to ensure proper treatment of overflows that may occur during wet weather. The EPA expects King County to comply by March 2010.
Annie Kolb-Nelson, media planner in the Department of Natural Resources and Parks Wastewater Treatment Division, said the county shares the EPA's goals and that CSO control has been a priority for the county since the early 1980s. The county would like to control CSOs in 16 remaining areas and has a plan to accomplish that by 2030. "[The EPA compliance order highlights issues we] plan to rectify so that we are meeting our standards and that we are protecting public health and the environment with our facilities," Kolb-Nelson said.
