The 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 that harm Chinook salmon.

In 2027, the Smith Island Wastewater Control Plant on the Snohomish River will begin monitoring water entering the plant for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) under a water quality permit issued Nov. 21. The increased monitoring aims to track how the plant is effective in reducing PBDE chemicals found in flame retardants.

The five-year permit goes into effect on January 1st.

In 2019, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials told city staff that they had found high levels of PBDEs in the Snohomish River, particularly near the plant. State biologists found that PBDE levels were about one and a half times higher than levels that fish can tolerate before their health is compromised. The chemicals harm juvenile Chinook by weakening their immune systems and interfering with hormone production.

Chinook are keystone species that are critical to the health of their ecosystems. The fish have tremendous cultural value to indigenous people throughout the Pacific Northwest. But habitat degradation and overfishing have led to declining populations, and Chinook in Puget Sound were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1999.

In response to the findings, Water Pollution Control Facility staff reduced wastewater flow into the Snohomish River during the salmon run from February to July. The remainder of the wastewater was discharged into Port Gardner Bay via the plant’s outlet.

After the first draft permit was released in October 2023, several 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 that aims to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Northwest, testified in January that control treatment requires more stringent PBDE requirements. Now the organization welcomes the requirements of the permit.

“Long Live the Kings and our partners are still reviewing the details of the final permit, but we are pleased that our concerns about the path of PBDEs through wastewater treatment plants are being addressed,” project coordinator Jayde Essex wrote in an email. “It is inspiring to see that our commitment to salmon has helped increase the requirements for testing and control of PBDE discharge.”

Plant staff will submit a project plan in March and monitor PBDE leakage levels semi-annually throughout 2025 to establish baseline data. Managers will create a new protocol for water flow during the Chinook migration in July.

Additional monitoring will identify companies that emit significant amounts of PBDEs. In July, facility staff will provide best practice assessments to companies.

Later, the facility will monitor water flowing into the treatment plant for PBDEs to determine whether efforts to control commercial and industrial use are effective.

“There are also PBDEs in the river sediments and food web, and there are PBDEs in domestic wastewater (not just industrial wastewater),” Ecology spokeswoman Scarlet Tang wrote in an email. “The permit addresses PBDEs in one source – the wastewater discharged from the water pollution control facility – but does not address other sources, such as the PBDEs already in the environment.”

Other public concerns centered 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. However, the chemicals do not break down but instead accumulate in the environment, wildlife and people. Studies show that 95 to 100% of Americans have PFAS in their blood.

The chemicals have been linked to elevated cholesterol levels, thyroid disease and kidney cancer.

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

“Time will tell whether this work is sufficient or whether further work is required,” Tang said.

At least once a year, the environmental protection facility is required to publish in a local newspaper a list of companies that do not comply with the approved local limits and the best management practices developed by the facility.

Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; [email protected]; X: @ElizaAronson. Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.