Coming into Compliance: Five Boatyard Legal Actions Settled

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As part of this process, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Northwest Marine Trade Association representative board members and staff met twice with facilitation assistance from the William D. Ruckelshaus Center in February and March 2010 to forge a new collaborative path forward on boatyard issues. We agreed on and committed to three initiatives to mutually work on in the coming months: (1) the creation of a voluntary clean boatyard program; (2) to research non-toxic bottom paints & plan for the phase-out of toxic bottom paints; and (3) to negotiate an agreement between Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and the Northwest Marine Trade Association on how to achieve boatyard compliance with the stormwater permit without further litigation.

The motivation behind Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s decision to file 60-day notice letters with the five boatyards is the high level of copper in their stormwater discharges.  According to the 2007 Update of Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Copper by the US Environmental Protection Agency, copper is fatal to Chinook and coho salmon and rainbow trout or steelhead at an average concentration of 22-25 parts per billion (ppb).   At even lower levels, it can disrupt crucial survival behaviors like feeding, predator avoidance and migration.

Terms of the individual settlement agreements will have each boatyard taking necessary steps over the coming months to reduce their discharges of copper to Lake Union and Lake Washington.  The parties agreed to comply with all conditions of the stormwater permit and any successor National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit authorizing discharges from their facilities. Three of the boatyards agreed to penalty payments which will fund restoration projects conducted by other non-profit groups.

• Nonprofit: Friends of Cedar River Watershed, Lake Washington School District Students for a restoration & rain garden project - Value: $1,000
• Nonprofit: Citizens for a Healthy Bay, Commencement Bay Restoration Project - Value: $5,000
  

Two of the boatyards paid no penalties due to their financial condition.

Since 1995, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance has worked collaboratively with the Northwest Marine Trade Association on boater education at NMTA boat shows, training on stormwater permit compliance, the Clean Marina program and the Boatyard Stormwater Treatment Technology Pilot Study. Both groups plan to continue this working partnership.