Suquamish Tribe to sue King County after wastewater spill

SEATTLE (AP) — Two years of Puget Sound sewage spills totaling more than 6 million gallons have driven the Suquamish Tribe to threaten a lawsuit against King County for the violation of clean-water laws.

In a letter to King County officials this week, lawyers representing the tribe stated the tribe’s intent to sue the county within 60 days for violation of the Clean Water Act because of sewage spills from its West Point Treatment Plant in 2018 and 2019, The Seattle Times reported. That's in addition to other violations of county permits reported by King County to its regulator, the state Department of Ecology.

The biggest spill noted by the tribe came on July 19 last year just as the Suquamish Tribe was welcoming 40 canoe paddlers and hundreds of guests to its reservation for the annual Tribal Canoe Journey. An order from the health department warning to have no contact with the water had the tribe scrambling for clean shirts and washing stations for guests as they arrived on their shores.

It was a blow that still stings for the people from the Place of Clear Saltwater, who pride themselves on hospitality.

“It was rather difficult, and embarrassing,” Leonard Forsman, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, told the newspaper.

The spill was caused by a sag in power supply to the West Point Treatment Plant for less than a second that turned off some of the pumps at the plant. The spill and possible fines remain under investigation by Ecology.

King County has made major improvements to wastewater treatment facilities and operations in recent years, and is investing an additional $9 billion this decade in clean water and healthy habitat, according to a statement from the county’s Wastewater Treatment Division in response to the tribe’s letter.

The tribe’s complaint also comes as the county has started work on a new comprehensive plan for further investment in wastewater infrastructure.

The county has hundreds of miles of pipes, pumps, tanks, treatment plants and other equipment, some of it 50 years old, and is facing a growing population and a changing climate that will hit the system with more intense storms that increase the volume of wastewater it must manage. Wastewater is made up mostly of storm water, in addition to raw sewage from homes and businesses.

The county will spend billions more over the next few decades on system upgrades and expansions, all paid for with utility rates that are already among the highest in the country.

“This is the hard part of the job for me sometimes as a chairman, when we have to take these drastic actions against people we have partnered with before,” Forsman said of King County Executive Dow Constantine and other county managers. “The problem is, this keeps happening … Our fishermen and our elders expect us to protect our ancestral waters."

Christie True, director of King County Natural Resources and Parks, which has authority over the Wastewater Treatment Division, said the county highly values its relationship with the Suquamish and that she's sure they will be talking with them soon.

“We all want the same thing in the end,” she said.