Federal Way water utility company fined over $85,000 for pollution

The Lakehaven Water and Sewer District, based in Federal Way, was fined over $85,000, said the Department of Ecology in a news release on Tuesday.

The department said the district’s Redondo Wastewater Treatment Plant, in Des Moines, polluted Cold Creek on three days in 2022.

“Heavy rains coinciding with high tides at the Lakehaven Water and Sewer District’s Redondo wastewater treatment plant caused incompletely treated wastewater to flow into Cold Creek,” said the Department of Ecology.

Cold Creek flows into Poverty Bay and the pollution led to the closure of around 68 acres of the bay’s shellfish beds. The closure is still in effect.

The department said the early 2022 incidents caused around 484,000 gallons of non-disinfected wastewater to flow into the creek. This allowed harmful bacteria and viruses into the creek and bay that can cause illness in humans and wildlife, and make shellfish dangerous to eat.

The department also said those incidents weren’t the first.

“The January and February 2022 weather events are the latest in a series of heavy rainfall and high tide events that led to overflows at the facility since the District lengthened the plant’s outfall line beyond the shellfish beds in 2009,” said the department. “Heavy rainfall coinciding with high tide events caused wastewater to back up at the treatment plant instead of discharging into the bay. After overflowing treatment channels within the disinfection building, the wastewater spilled out of the effluent channel outside the disinfection building and into nearby Cold Creek, which flows into Poverty Bay.”

The department said it penalized the district $85,200 and issued an “administrative order requiring system improvements and an enhanced emergency notification system.”

The penalizations are for, “unlawfully polluting state waters, discharging effluent in an unpermitted area, and failing to report discharges properly and accurately.”

The department is requiring the district to correct the issues by 2027.

“We’re requiring Lakehaven Water and Sewer District to invest in its facilities to meet permit requirements and to protect water quality, shellfish harvesting, and recreational uses of the local beach and Poverty Bay,” said the Department of Ecology’s water quality program manager, Vince McGowan.

In April, fecal pollution led to harvest restrictions in three of Washington’s 115 shellfish growing areas.

In March, the Washington State Department of Health awarded $5.5 million to restore and protect shellfish habitats across Puget Sound.

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