Employers in Washington Suing the EPA for New Water Quality Standards

Washington — Employer groups in Washington have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging their new water quality standards for the state.

After more than a decade of discussions amongst stakeholders, officials say robust water quality standards were adopted in 2016.

In 2022, the EPA decided to override those standards.

The suit claims they did this without providing any implementation tools to assist private or public entities in complying with the new rule.

Now, many say they're struggling to meet the new standards.

Thus, putting tens of thousands of labor-backed, family-waged jobs at risk in some of Washington’s more rural and economically distressed communities.

“For years now, Washington employers and have worked closely with policymakers and regulators to craft new standards that protect human health and improve the quality of the state’s waterways while also ensuring the continued economic vitality of our state,” said Kris Johnson, president of the Association of Washington Business (AWB). “Regrettably, the EPA adopted standards that cannot be met with any existing or reasonably foreseeable future wastewater treatment technology, jeopardizing the operation of not only thousands of private businesses, but municipal wastewater treatment systems, too,”

The Association of Washington Business (AWB) is joined in the suit by four other organizations including Food Northwest, the region’s largest food processing trade association.

Reporter: Alahna Martinez