'A double standard going on again'

Cd’A joins appeal of Washington wastewater permit

COEUR d’ALENE — The city of Coeur d’Alene has joined a handful of other wastewater dischargers appealing a Washington state agency’s discharge permit they say is too lenient.

Sid Fredrickson, wastewater superintendent for the city of Coeur d’Alene, said he has joined other dischargers and environmental groups to appeal a wastewater discharge permit for a fish hatchery that is operated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fredrickson said the Washington Department of Ecology renewed the fish hatchery permit without requiring the agency to do quarterly samples of its wastewater effluent as all other Spokane River dischargers are required to do under their discharge permits.

“These tests are damn expensive,” Fredrickson said, adding each test costs $1,100 and they have to provide more than a dozen tests per quarter. “Here we have a double standard going on again.”

Wastewater dischargers were issued new discharge permits in 2014 after a 10-year protracted battle over the amount of phosphorus that was allowed to be discharged in the Spokane River.

The new permits required Idaho dischargers to spend a combined $100 million on upgrades to their wastewater treatment plants.

The permits also required the Idaho dischargers to participate in the Spokane River Regional Toxics Task Force, which is tasked with reducing pollutants in the Spokane River between Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane Indian Reservation west of Spokane.

The task force was formed as part of a bi-state agreement to reduce polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from going into the river rather than setting an enforceable limit for PCBs.

Fredrickson said nobody could agree on what the limits for PCBs should be, so they agreed to work toward “measurable progress” in reducing the pollutant.

The fish hatchery has PCBs in the food it feeds its fish, and therefore Fredrickson said it should be required to adhere to the same regulations as the rest of the dischargers.

“Even though their PCBs levels may be low, they should be monitoring their discharge like everyone else.”

Fredrickson said Coeur d’Alene’s PCB concentrations in its treated wastewater are very low as well. He said it is discharging less than 10 parts per quadrillion of PCBs.

Fredrickson said the Spokane Tribe has asked for limits of 1.2 parts per quadrillion.

“To put that in perspective, 1.2 parts per quadrillion is equal to one-half of a drop of water in all of Lake Coeur d’Alene,” he said, adding that would be extremely hard to detect.

After learning the hatchery would not be required to adhere to the same rules as the other dischargers, Fredrickson pulled together as many dischargers as he could to appeal the permit before the public comment period closed last week.

“It is not a lawsuit,” Fredrickson clarified. “We appealed this to the Washington State Pollution Control Board.”

He said the board will hold hearings and rule on the appeal, but no dates have been set for the hearing yet.

Fredrickson said Washington’s Department of Ecology declined to extend the public comment period to allow more dischargers to appeal the permit and closed it on Jan. 15.

“We had to move pretty quickly on this. There wasn’t a lot of time to consider this,” he said. “I didn’t even have time to give my city council a heads-up, so I am probably in a little trouble for that.”