EPA Penalizes Town Of Coulee Dam Over $70,000 For Clean Water Act Violations

Wastewater plant failed to meet basic requirements of pollutant discharge permit

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Town of Coulee Dam, Washington will pay $70,881 for violations of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act at the town’s wastewater treatment plant.

The wastewater treatment plant failed to meet the following requirements of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit:

• Submit monthly Discharge Monitoring Reports to EPA and the Colville Tribes
• Notify EPA and the Colville Tribes that their Operations and Maintenance Plan was developed and implemented
• Inform EPA and the Colville Tribes that their new plant had begun operations and their old plant had closed
• Apply for a new permit on time
• Provide the correct location of the discharge point

“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.” 

EPA investigations began in 2019 when the treatment plant did not submit required Discharge Monitoring Reports. DMRs help track the amount of pollution discharged from permitted facilities into waterways like the Columbia River. A facility’s permit assigns values for the type and amount of pollutants it is allowed to discharge. 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.

EPA’s technical assistance webinars on improving NPDES compliance are available to plant operators, municipal leaders, technical assistance providers, and compliance inspection staff from federal, state, tribal and local governments.

Additional details can be found in the Consent Agreement and Final Order.