Idaho dischargers consider wastewater lawsuit over permit regulations

Coeur d’Alene Press

July 6, 2010

Brian Walker

POST FALLS – Kootenai County agencies that discharge wastewater into the Spokane River aren’t giving up in their fight for equal treatment with the Spokane River cleanup plan.

The Post Falls City Council on Tuesday night will consider a resolution that affirms filing a lawsuit over the discharge permit regulations.

“The lawsuit refers to the inequitable treatment promulgated by both the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the creation of the TMDL (total maximum daily load pollution cleanup plan),” said Eric Keck, city administrator. “We expect to have the permits stayed until the equity issue is addressed and when they provide us with full credit for our population growth as they did for all other dischargers.”

Post Falls, Rathdrum – which sends its effluent to Post Falls – and the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board are protesting regulations approved earlier by Ecology and EPA.

“The permit will be issued by the EPA in spite of repeated endeavors to modify the regulations to workable practices,” Keck wrote in a memo to the council.

If the council adopts the resolution, a complaint will be filed in federal court to challenge the TMDL.

The city was still working on a draft of the complaint on Friday.

The EPA in May said it supports Ecology’s plan despite the Idaho agencies’ protest to Ecology, finally making the document official after 12 contentious years.

Keck said the dischargers want to do their part to clean up the river despite costly upgrades and are running pilot tests to do so. But they’re preparing to take the debate to court because they believe the standard is unfair.

The phosphorous cleanup plan calls for a reduction in pollution from industrial and municipal pipes by approximately 80,000 pounds of phosphorus a year. Dischargers will have up to 10 years to comply with new discharge limits in the plan, with extension up to 20 years possible under some circumstances.

Phosphorus encourages algae growth, which then depletes oxygen from the water that fish need to live. Due to the sensitivity of the Spokane River system, the phosphorous limits for industrial and municipal discharges are among the most stringent in the country.

EPA will issue new discharge permits in Idaho. The proposed permits are expected to be available for public comment in August and issued in early 2011, but a suit could delay the process.

In other business, the council will hear presentations on the proposed levy for the technical school near Rathdrum and the proposed bond for Kootenai County Fire and Rescue improvements.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at 408 N. Spokane St.