Why fight so hard to keep sewage in Puget Sound? Tacoma’s court case raises questions | Opinion

What happens after you flush? In larger cities and towns, your sewage is collected and treated by sewage treatment plants. You usually can’t see this happen, but for anyone who has ever experienced a toilet overflow, wouldn’t you want to ensure that what you’ve flushed is fully treated before it’s pumped into Puget Sound?

For years, polls have shown that people support efforts to make sure that the water in Puget Sound is clean, for orca and salmon, for Dungeness crab and kelp, for people.

And yet, a group of cities, counties and sewer districts that discharge sewage into the sound is pursuing a case, now before the State Supreme Court, that would seriously weaken our ability to control pollution in this globally renowned aquatic ecosystem.

We can do better. We must do better. That’s why we urge the court to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Here’s the problem: Human sewage discharged to Puget Sound still contains pollution, including nitrogen. Excess nitrogen worsens algae blooms that can reduce the amount of available oxygen in the water. When oxygen levels get too low, sea life suffocates.

Sewage pollution can also worsen ocean acidification, already set in motion by climate change, which makes it difficult for creatures like clams and crab to form shells. Over a decade ago, the state’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification identified reducing local nitrogen and carbon pollution from sewage discharges to Puget Sound as a key step in addressing this.

Because of the way water circulates in the Sound, pollution discharges in one place can cause problems many miles away. For instance, pollutants from around the region tend to accumulate in places like southern Puget Sound. This profoundly affects the shellfish and salmon fisheries upon which the Squaxin Island Tribe and the Suquamish Indian Tribe have relied for millennia. Sewage also affects anyone who treasures the ability to go crabbing, observe wildlife, swim, kayak, sail and otherwise enjoy the waters of the sound.

The Department of Ecology’s chosen method to control this nitrogen pollution is called the Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit. Issued in 2021, after decades of process and study, the general permit requires cities and counties to plan how to reduce pollution. The permit puts on record that cities and counties cannot continue to grow with outdated sewage treatment practices, and that limits on pollution are needed.

However, the city of Tacoma, Birch Bay Water and Sewer District, Kitsap County, Southwest Suburban Sewer District and Alderwood Water & Wastewater District have made an argument that tries to prevent these pollution-reduction plans from even beginning.

Their argument uses odd circular reasoning involving a response to another environmental organization several years ago. It’s kind of like they want to force a win on a technicality in the last quarter of a football match. And the technicality doesn’t even make sense. Nor does it have any legal merit.

But set aside the regulatory and legal wrangling for a moment. We have the means to solve this problem now. In fact, several municipalities have already incorporated more modern approaches to sewage treatment, including the Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston County (LOTT) plant and Pierce County’s Chambers Creek plant, while keeping utility rates low.

Spokane County is removing nutrients as well. We are decades behind other iconic regions like Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound.

The cities and counties that are parties to this Supreme Court case should do the same. King County operates the largest sewage discharges to Puget Sound, and they need to modernize their sewage treatment as they are cleaning up CSO pollution as well.

We don’t have time for these sorts of games. The population of the Puget Sound region is expected to double by 2070. That many more people would approximately double nitrogen from wastewater if current treatment plant technology remains unchanged, which would further reduce oxygen levels in Puget Sound.

We have a responsibility to build on these first steps. The state is long overdue in requiring modern practices for sewage pollution. Let’s get to work cleaning up the Sound rather than further delaying action for ourselves and our environment.

Alyssa Macy is CEO of Washington Conservation Action and a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon.