FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 571

                                  C 399 L 87

BYHouse Committee on Environmental Affairs (originally sponsored by Representatives Grant, Hankins, Jesernig, Prince, Rayburn, Nealey, Brooks, Brough, L. Smith, D. Sommers, May and Miller)

Permitting municipalities to discharge from municipal water treatment plants if the intake is from the same body of water as the discharge and water quality standards remain high.

House Committe on Environmental Affairs

Senate Committee on Parks & Ecology

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

Under the Pollution Control Disclosure Act of 1971 and the Water Resources Act of 1971, wastes discharged into the waters of the state must be provided with "all known, available, and reasonable methods of treatment" prior to discharge.  Untreated wastes may not be discharged into the state's waters if the discharge will reduce the quality of the water, even where minimum water quality standards will not be violated.

Some municipal water treatment plants utilize "intake water" taken from a river and discharge the untreated waste removed from these waters back into the river.  The Department of Ecology requires that this "backwash water" be treated.  This treatment consists of disposal of "backwash water" in a settling pond and disposal of the discharge from the settling pond in a solid waste landfill.

SUMMARY:

Effluent discharge standards for municipal water treatment plants located on the Chehalis, Columbia, Cowlitz, Lewis and Skagit rivers will be adjusted to reflect credit for substances removed from plant intake water if intake water is drawn from the same body of water into which the discharge is made and no violation of receiving water quality standards or appreciable environmental degradation will result.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 89   6

      Senate    43     0

EFFECTIVE:July 26, 1987