Clean Water Now

In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to protect and restore the nation's waterways for fishing and swimming. Now, WashPIRG Foundation is calling on the Department of Ecology (Ecology) to fulfill the state's requirements under the Clean Water Act.

At an October 2002 news conference, WashPIRG Foundation's Ivy Sager- Rosenthal announced to the media that we collected more than 10,000 postcards from Washington citizens urging Ecology to improve the state's water quality standards. Photo: Robert Pregulman

Improving Washington's Water Quality Protection
In 2001 and 2002, WashPIRG Foundation focused our efforts on convincing Ecology to complete its overdue review of the state's water quality standards. As one of only a few environmental groups that devoted a significant amount of time to strengthening Washington's water quality standards, we were successful in shining the spotlight of public scrutiny on Ecology's failure to review and improve water quality standards in nearly ten years; pressuring Ecology to complete the review and adopt standards that protect public health and endangered species; ensuring that key environmental organizations in the state had a unified response to Ecology's water quality standards proposals; and organizing other groups, citizens and the media to comment on Ecology's water quality standards proposals.

In October 2001, Aisling Kerins, WashPIRG Foundation's field organizer, delivered more than 10,000 postcards from Washington citizens to Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons. The postcards urged Ecology to complete its long overdue review of Washington's water quality standards and ensure that the review makes significant improvements to the state's water quality.

Next, Environmental Advocate Ivy Sager-Rosenthal participated in a series of meetings held by Ecology from December 2001 to June 2002 to discuss Washington's water quality standards. Representatives from industry and local governments also attended these meetings. We represented the environmental community during discussions about the standards, prepared and gave presentations on our proposed improvements for water quality standards, and coordinated the attendance of other members of the environmental community.

In addition, we distributed more than 20,000 flyers that educated citizens about Ecology's resistance to completing a triennial review and asked them to contact Ecology and the governor to urge them to quickly complete the review of Washington's water quality standards. These flyers, along with our newsletter, e-mail alerts, and Web site, generated more than 700 comments to Ecology and the governor.

To educate the public, policymakers, and the media about Ecology's resistance to completing a triennial review of water quality standards, we generated print, television and radio coverage that included stories in the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Olympian, Spokesman-Review, Bellingham Herald, and Vancouver Columbian.

After Ecology issued its June 2002 water quality standards proposal, WashPIRG Foundation analyzed and submitted comments in response. We also helped draft the environmental community's alternative water quality standards proposal. Our analysis revealed that Ecology's proposed standards would fail to protect public health and endangered species, such as salmon, and would allow the degradation of clean water bodies to the point where those water bodies would fail to meet water quality standards.

We successfully signed seven other leading environmental groups on to our comments. Signers included the Washington Environmental Council, People for Puget Sound, Washington Toxics Coalition and American Rivers.

An Ongoing Struggle
In August 2002, as Ecology prepared a final draft of the water quality standards for public review, Sager-Rosenthal met with Gov. Locke's office and delivered a letter expressing our disappointment with the inadequacy of the standards in protecting the state's water resources and unique ecosystems, as mandated under the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. We urged Gov. Locke to express his commitment to clean water by directing Ecology to adopt and implement water quality standards that meet the goals of the Clean Water Act. This letter was co-signed by American Rivers, Columbia Riverkeeper, Kettle Range Conservation Group, Northwest Environmental Advocates, People for Puget Sound, Washington Environmental Coalition and Washington Toxics Coalition.

At our event marking the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, WashPIRG Foundation released this report, which analyzed all major Clean Water Act violators in the state and revealed the type of pollutants they are discharging illegally into our waterways.

In August 2002, we also released Decade of Delay: How the Washington Department of Ecology and Polluters Have Delayed the Improvement of Washington's Water Quality Standards. This report, written by Sager-Rosenthal, examined Ecology's ten-year delay in reviewing and updating Washington's water quality standards and exposed the influence that some of the state's largest water polluters have exerted on the development of the standards.

In fall 2002, as Ecology progressed towards finalizing the water quality standards, we organized and attended multiple meetings with Ecology staff. In these meetings, we successfully convinced Ecology to consider our alternative proposal when preparing the draft environmental impact statement that it released in December 2002.

In addition, WashPIRG Foundation marked the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act on Oct. 18, 2002 with a media conference attended by coalition partners People for Puget Sound and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. During the event, which took place in front of Puget Sound, we criticized the state's lack of implementation and enforcement of water quality protections, and we released In Gross Violation: How Polluters Are Flooding America's Waterways With Toxic Chemicals, written by Alison Cassady, WashPIRG Foundation's federal policy research director. The 30th anniversary event and the report received coverage in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Olympian, Spokesman- Review, and Vancouver Columbian.

Real Progress
All of the above actions played a critical role in convincing Ecology to complete a triennial review of Washington's water quality standards and update the standards to improve protection of our waterways. Public hearings on the draft of Ecology's updated water quality standards were held in February 2003, and Ecology recently issued final standards. WashPIRG Foundation will continue to organize grassroots organizations, the public, and the media to make sure Ecology properly implements the standards.