Environmentalists urge more chinook protection

OLYMPIA – Government regulators aren’t doing enough to ensure Puget Sound’s threatened chinook salmon, the main food supply for endangered killer whales, are protected from wastewater, environmentalists said Wednesday.

Several conservation groups, led by the National Wildlife Federation, are threatening a lawsuit if the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t submit its Washington state wastewater permit program to further scientific review.

“Water quality is not good enough for salmon recovery and we absolutely need to address it – especially now, given the fact that we are expecting much more population growth in the Puget Sound region,” said Kathy Fletcher, director of People for Puget Sound.

State and federal regulators said they needed time to review the groups’ specific legal claims, but countered that new permits for wastewater and runoff use the latest science to help protect the sound from pollution.

“They really reflect the best information we have right now on how to protect the environment, how to protect fish and endangered species,” said Glenn Kuper, a water quality spokesman for the state Department of Ecology.

The permits targeted by the five conservation groups regulate commercial and municipal wastewater. The permits’ standards are rooted in the federal Clean Water Act, and state ecology officials administer them on behalf of the EPA.

The permits cover wastewater discharges by more than 4,000 entities, including about 1,200 sources of industrial stormwater runoff, Kuper said.

Critics say the agencies aren’t getting a more detailed analysis of wastewater effects on chinook, which is required because the fish are considered threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Conservationists hope that Wednesday’s formal 60-day notice of an impending lawsuit will prod the EPA to get that environmental analysis.