Our waterways are too precious to destroy

Reach of contaminaton

The reach of pollution and contamination of our waterways extend far beyond the Cedar River Canyon.

As you can see from the map, the areas affected goes all the way to the Puget Sound.

Agencies will defend their processes and say that the amount of contamination is not enough to cause adverse affects. However, they are not looking at the entire spectrum of toxins that are released into the streams.

The discovery of a mysterious chemical that kills Coho salmon in urban streams is expected to spawn new research throughout the world while possibly inspiring new demands for protective regulations - Article by Puget Sound Institute.

This new discovery demonstrates how little scientists know of the effects of the 4000 + chemicals in the world. It also questions the “acceptable source impact levels” (ASIL) regulatory agencies use to determine “safety”.

Regulations only require a small percentage of the thousands of chemicals to be monitored.

How do we know what really is “safe”? Is any level safe?

What is really in the water and outflows?

Testing for compounds above and beyond what regulations require is needed.

Sole Source Aquifer

EPA defines a sole source aquifer (SSA) as one where:

The aquifer supplies at least 50 percent of the drinking water for its service area
There are no reasonably available alternative drinking water sources should the aquifer become contaminated

There are very few sole source aquifers in the United States as depicted by this map.

The Cedar River Basin is one of those SSA. It needs to be protected!
The cities of Renton, Kent, and parts of unincorporated King County gets their drinking water from this SSA.

Leachate

Sewer Pipe flow from Cedar Hills to South WWTP

Leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. In the case of a landfill, it includes picking up any toxins and chemicals in the process. It also includes any “new” toxins that are created by the combining of existing toxins. The result is a toxic slurry.

CHRLF produces massive amounts of leachate due to the high rainfall levels we have in this area. It is collected in 2 large ponds/lagoons. There is so much leachate, it must be piped to the South Wastewater Treatment Plant in Renton. In fact, CHRLF is permitted to send 2.7 MILLION gallons per DAY to the WWTP. In contrast, the Republic Services landfill in eastern Washington must recycle its leachate through the buried waste to increase methane production. It does not have to pipe it’s leachate anywhere because of the arid nature of eastern Washington.

Not only is the liquid mixture full of toxins, it also emits these toxins into the air. For the past few years, CHRLF leachate has exceeded allowed levels of Arsenic and have not been able to properly treat it. The leachate is sent to WWTP with excess Arsenic. To make matters worse, the WWTP does NOT REMOVE any of the heavy metals. As long as they stay below their regulated numbers, the heavy metals remain, and is passed on to the waterways in the “treated” water and on our lands as Loop.

Pipes from CHRLF transport leachate along the Cedar River to the South Renton WWTP. The potential for breakage along this river is real. This map on the left shows the pipe and it’s proximity to the Cedar River.

Sewage Spills

Warning after a sewage spill that contaminated Lake Washington.

Over the past couple of years, there have been at least 6 raw sewages spills into the Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Komo News - Jan. 14, 2021 - Millions of gallons spill into Puget Sound

KIng5 News - Jan. 2-3, 2021 - Bainbridge Island Plant Spill

Kitsap Sun - Dec. 23, 2020 - Several spills near Bremerton

King5 News - Dec. 2, 2020 - Operator error at Discovery Park

Dept. of Ecology - July 19, 2019 - Investigation of King County Spills

There are many, many more sewage spills across the state, especially during storms, mostly due to power outages and high volumes of water.

Waste Water Discharge

Sewage is transported to the waste water treatment plants for household and industrial sources.

Once at the treatment plant, water and the organic solids are separated. The water is treated through natural biological processes that use bacteria, oxygen and settling tanks. The end product meets stringent water quality standards prior to discharge.

These “stringent” water quality standards do not take into account the 1000’s of toxic chemicals in the water because regulations don’t account for them. The technology available does not have the capability of removing them from the water.

Nor do their standards actually REMOVE the 9 heavy metals. They are only required to test the levels. Therefore, these metals are passed on in the “treated” water and the biosolids (Loop)

Hence, the water being released into the Puget Sound and other waterways as “clean effluent” is still contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals.