Coulee Dam fined for EPA violations

SEATTLE — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that the Town of Coulee Dam, Washington will pay nearly $71,000 for violations of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act at the town’s wastewater treatment plant, according to a press release from the EPA.

“The cultural, economic and environmental significance of the Columbia River to the western U.S. cannot be overstated,” said EPA Region 10 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director Ed Kowalski. “All facilities operating on the river must comply with the law to safeguard this critical watershed and be good neighbors to the Colville Tribes and the many other communities that depend on it.”

The city had multiple findings regarding the operation of its wastewater treatment plant under its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The EPA found that the city failed to submit monthly reports to the EPA and Colville Tribes; did not notify the EPA and Colville that their operations and maintenance plan had been developed and implemented; did not inform the EPA and Colville that their new plant had begun operations nor inform them that the old plant had ceased operation; did not apply for a new permit on time; and, failed to provide the correct location of the discharge point from the plant. 

The EPA investigation began in 2019 when discharge monitoring reports, or DMRs, were not filed in a timely manner. Those reports help track the amount of pollution discharged by such facilities into bodies of water such as the Columbia River. Without the timely submittal of DMRs, EPA cannot monitor if wastewater treatment plants are complying with permits, effectively treating wastewater, and preventing excess pollution from entering the river. Follow-up investigations found that the wastewater treatment plant failed additional conditions of the NPDES permit, the press release said.