(The Center Square) – Seattle and King County have been penalized a combined $87,500 by the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for breaching the terms of their water quality permits and federal consent decree violations pertaining to sewer issues. Public utilities for the two jurisdictions say the issues will be addressed as more projects are completed.
The infractions took place throughout 2024. Seattle accrued a $35,000 fine for multiple sanitary sewer overflow events, and King County is facing a $52,500 penalty for issues at its wet weather treatment stations and other compliance shortcomings.
Penalty money will be split in half between the state Department of Ecology and the EPA. Payments specifically to the Department of Ecology will go into the state’s Coastal Protection Fund, which provides grants to public agencies and tribes for water quality restoration projects.
Despite the penalties, Seattle Public Utilities told The Center Square that polluted stormwater and sewage concerns will be addressed as more projects are completed. This includes the $710 million Ship Canal Water Quality Project, which the department anticipates is keeping more than 75 million gallons of polluted stormwater and sewage from flowing into local waters each year.
“The project addresses a majority of our current combined sewer overflow volumes and is just one part of our work reducing Combined Sewer Overflows,” Seattle Public Utilities said in a statement emailed to The Center Square. “We have completed more than 50 projects across Seattle in the last decade designed to reduce overflows.”
The city department added that it had no more than four sanitary sewer overflows per 100 miles of sewer each year for more than a decade.
King County-owned Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station is one of the county’s largest capital projects with a price tag of $275 million. In its first full year of operation in 2023, the station treated an estimated 32 million gallons of polluted stormwater and wastewater.
The station operates when it’s needed during heavy storms, when rainfall can overload sewer pipelines that carry stormwater and wastewater in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The station removes organic material and disinfects the tainted water with ultraviolet light. The treated water is then discharged into the Duwamish River.
King County Wastewater Treatment Division told The Center Square that the county is investing more than $11 billion over the next decade to comply with state and federal regulations and maintain and upgrade our aging infrastructure.
“We recognize that these penalties are required by law, and we take them seriously,” the department said in an email to The Center Square. “Our goal is to operate our facilities in full compliance with permit conditions every year.”
County projects include controlling the remaining combined sewer overflow outfall locations and making other system upgrades.
“When completed, this work will greatly reduce the likelihood of overflows to the benefit of public health and the environment,” the Wastewater Treatment Division said.
The recently announced penalties are required under consent decrees negotiated between Seattle, King County, the Department of Ecology and EPA. These legal agreements require the two jurisdictions to comply with Washington’s combined sewer overflow regulations.
The consent decrees were recently modified in order to give Seattle and King County more time to develop larger projects that are more resilient to climate change and shift the priority of projects to ensure those in the lower Duwamish River area are completed first. King County and Seattle will also have to control all overflow points by 2037 instead of the original 2030 deadline, as part of the modified consent decrees.
The modified consent decrees went into effect earlier this year.
