The Seattle Post Intelligencer
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State to impose tough water-quality standards

Aim is to limit amount of pollution

By SOLVEIG TORVIK
Thursday, January 4, 2001

After eight years of effort, the state Department of Ecology is about to impose tougher water quality standards that will affect virtually everyone who uses the state's surface waters for recreation, agriculture or commerce.

The new standards are aimed at limiting the amount of pollution that's allowed in Washington's rivers, lakes and marine waters. Many of them have never been brought into compliance with the 1975 federal Clean Water Act, according to Mark Hicks, Ecology's water quality standards coordinator.

"We can't say every stakeholder is thrilled with what we're proposing," Hicks said, "but I have a hard time thinking of any losers." The new rules have had input from industry, fruit packers, dairy farmers, dry land farmers, municipalities, Indian tribes, and federal agencies, among others, he said.

Here are some of the key changes Ecology is proposing:

·  The "anti-degradation plan" requires the state to protect water quality for all existing uses such as swimming, boating and fish habitat and mandates that water that's already cleaner than required not be degraded unless it's shown to be necessary or in the public interest, Hicks said.

It establishes criteria whereby the state's "best" bodies of water can be set aside as "water quality preservation areas." These likely would be existing Wild and Scenic Rivers or in parks. But it allows for creation of new areas as well, even if there are no fish in them but the water quality is excellent. Nominations could come from the state or the public, he said.

"People have been a little reluctant to nominate them for that level of protection" because of uncertainties about the effects on various existing uses, Hicks said. "I think we're going to let the public drive this process."

·  The state would stop using the fecal coliform standard for determining whether harmful bacteria is present in water, Hicks said. Instead, it would adopt the EPA's suggestion to use enterococci, a subspecies of a bacterium found in the guts of warm blooded animals and humans. It's a better predictor of how many people will get sick from coming into contact with contaminated water, he said. The fecal coliform standard would still be used on shellfish.

"We think this will better protect people's health," Hicks said.

·  The water temperature criteria currently used by Ecology has been a flash point of contention. It's perceived as either too stringent by such groups as the timber industry or too lenient by environmentalists, Hicks said. It's especially important that Ecology get this one right because of the impact on salmon and other temperature-sensitive fish such as bull trout, he said.

The agency proposes to fine-tune the standard to provide more flexibility. It will apply six different temperature standards, depending on which species lives in the affected body of water. "The broader brush wasn't working very well," Hicks said.

·  The dissolved oxygen standard would change to accommodate the needs of of salmon and trout spawning and rearing and warm-water fish spawning and rearing. Industries and municipalities that discharge waste water are among those affected by this rule. Its reach is "widespread, almost ubiquitous," Hicks said.

·  Irrigation water standards would be tightened to assure the water protects the crops as well as the health of the soil, Hicks said. It seeks to control the amount of total suspended solids and bicarbonate in irrigation water and to avoid buildup of salts that can cause soil toxicity. "We want to make sure that water used for irrigation is clean enough for that purpose," Hicks said.

Ecology will conduct public workshops in Mount Vernon Monday, Bellevue Tuesday, Longview next Thursday, Wenatchee Jan. 16, Kennewick Jan. 17, Spokane Jan. 18 and Port Angeles Jan. 22 to explain the proposals and take suggestions. In April, the agency will conduct formal public hearings on the final version of the new rules with the aim of submitting them to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval in June.

Even if EPA approves the rules -- as expected -- they must be submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which must approve them as suitable to protect fish.

Details about the locations of the workshops and the new regulation can be found at www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/swqa/index.html