Protecting & Preserving Puget Sound
All press release posts.
Today, a federal judge imposed a tight deadline on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize new anti-pollution water quality rules aimed at protecting public health. The rules, often called fish consumption rules, must ensure that fish caught and eaten from Washington waters are safe for the most vulnerable and exposed populations.
Today Puget Soundkeeper settled a landmark Clean Water Act case with multiple Louis Dreyfus corporations that will result in huge changes benefitting Elliott Bay and the Seattle waterfront. The settlement requires structural changes at the site to stop stormwater discharge from the pier and to prevent spillage of grain into Elliott Bay, as well as $699,000 to be awarded to local Puget Sound restoration and water protection efforts.
In a settlement agreement filed today, BP West Coast Products LLC (BP) agreed to comply with its industrial stormwater discharge permit and make improvements to the spill response strategy for its high-volume bulk fuel storage facility on Harbor Island, which distributes 10,000 barrels a day of unleaded gasoline and stores up to 305,000 barrels of gasoline on site.
Faced with the opportunity to protect Washingtonians from industrial agriculture pollution, Ecology instead chose to ignore the recommendations of its own scientists and bowed to “big ag,” writing a convoluted, two-tiered draft permit that fails to protect our most fundamental natural resource–clean water.
Under a binding consent decree filed Monday in federal court, the Port must now undertake better practices to prevent stormwater pollution from their Pier 66 facility, which services 203 cruise ship sailings a year.
“Our rivers are in distress,” said Trish Rolfe, director of the Center for Environmental Law & Policy. “We are disappointed and troubled that two Senators from the Midwest would try to stop efforts to educate Washington state residents about water pollution from industrial agriculture and the simple steps that agriculture could take that would dramatically improve water quality in our rivers.”
“Without this ruling, wastewater from these facilities would have polluted critically important habitat for years,” said Chris Wilke, Executive Director of Puget Soundkeeper. “But Puget Sound is in trouble today, and no facility has the right to violate the Clean Water Act and ignore the necessity of protecting our shared resources. ”
Today, a coalition of clean water advocates and commercial fishing industry groups quickly moved for summary judgment on a suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguing that the agency has failed yet again to protect public health by neglecting to finalize new anti-pollution rules.
This settlement is a critical step towards reducing toxic industrial stormwater and preventing a major oil spill to Puget Sound, addressing chief concerns for the recovery of endangered salmon and orca whales.
“EPA’s actions appear to allow political pressure and magical thinking to trump science,” said Marc Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance.