Everett water pollution facility’s new permit aims to protect salmon

EVERETT — The state Department of Ecology last month cleared the way for Everett’s Water Pollution Control Facility to better monitor chemicals harming Chinook salmon.

In 2027, the wastewater control facility, located on Smith Island along the Snohomish River, will start monitoring water coming into the plant for polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, under a water quality permit issued Nov. 21. The increased monitoring aims to track how effective the facility is at reducing PBDE chemicals found in flame retardant.

The five-year permit will go into effect Jan. 1.

In 2019, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials notified city staff they had found high concentrations of PBDEs in the Snohomish River, especially near the facility. State biologists determined PBDE levels were roughly 1½ times higher than levels fish can tolerate before their health is affected. The chemicals harm juvenile Chinook by weakening their immune systems and affecting hormone production.

Chinook are keystone species vital to the health of their ecosystems. The fish have immense cultural value to Indigenous people throughout the Pacific Northwest. But habitat degradation and overfishing has caused populations to plummet, and Chinook in Puget Sound were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1999.

In response to the findings, workers at the Water Pollution Control Facility reduced wastewater flow into the Snohomish River during salmon migration from February to July. The rest of the wastewater was released through the facility’s outfall on Port Gardner Bay.

After the initial permit draft came out in October 2023, multiple environmental groups pushed for additional PBDE monitoring and control requirements. Ecology made a number of changes to the permit and added requirements regarding PBDE levels.

Long Live the Kings, a Washington-based nonprofit aiming to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Northwest, testified in January that the control treatment needed stricter PBDE requirements. Now, the organization is applauding the permit’s requirements.

“Long Live the Kings and our partners are still reviewing the details of the final permit, but we are glad to see that our concerns about the pathway of PBDEs through wastewater treatment plants are being considered,” project coordinator Jayde Essex wrote in an email. “It is inspiring to see that our advocacy for salmon has had an impact on increasing the requirements for testing and controlling PBDE discharge.”

Facility workers will submit a project plan in March, and monitor outfall PBDE levels semiannually in 2025 to establish baseline data. Managers will create a new protocol for water flow during Chinook outmigration in July.

Additional monitoring will identify businesses discharging a significant amount of PBDEs. In July, facility workers will provide best practice evaluations to businesses.

Further down the line, the facility will monitor the water flowing into the treatment site for PBDEs to see if efforts to control business and industrial use are effective.

“There are also PBDEs in the river sediments and in the food web, and there are PBDEs in domestic wastewater (not just industrial wastewater),” Ecology spokesperson Scarlet Tang wrote in an email. “The permit will address PBDEs in one source—the wastewater discharged by the Water Pollution Control Facility—but won’t address other sources, such as the PBDEs that are already in the environment.”

Additional public concerns focused on per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, commonly known as PFAS and nicknamed “forever chemicals.”

PFAS are used in countless consumer and industrial products, including nonstick cookware and waterproof clothing. But the chemicals don’t degrade, and instead build up in environments, wildlife and people. Studies show 95% to 100% of Americans have PFAS in their blood.

The chemicals are linked to increased cholesterol levels, thyroid disease and kidney cancer.

The permit draft required the city to identify likely sources of PFAS and create best management practices sources could use to reduce chemical discharge. The finalized permit added new requirements, including quarterly inflow monitoring of PFAS into the wastewater facility for 2026 and 2028.

“Time will tell whether this work is sufficient or if other work will be needed,” Tang said.

At least once a year, the pollution control facility is mandated to publish in a local newspaper a list of businesses noncomplaint with approved local limits and best management practices developed by the facility.

Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson. Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.