Dept. of Ecology Reports Eight
Violations of Water Quality Rules
At Sea-Tac in Two-Month Period

According to the Department of Ecology, Port of Seattle contractors violated the water-quality rules for Sea-Tac Airport on eight different occasions between 13 October & 15 December. The results were discharges of muddy or contaminated water into Lake Reba, Miller Creek, Walker Creek, & the wetlands of Walker Creek. Most of the violations happened at the third-runway site.

The first two incidents both occurred on 13 October. Water used to flush mud and dirt off the north haul road ended up Miller Creek. Later that day, the storm drain catch basin on SR 518 allowed muddy water from highway flushing activities to discharge into Miller Creek.

On 31 October, a storm drain outfall was found to be discharging turbid water into Lake Reba.

On 1 November, turbid water was found leaking out of Pond “D” into Miller Creek at 8th So. This unauthorized discharge caused a violation of turbidity standards in Miller Creek.

In the evening of 3 November and early hours of 4 November, approximately 1.5 million gallons of muddy water went downstream into Walker Creek all the way to the Sound. Spawning salmon were documented to have been in Walker Creek & lower Miller Creek at the time.

The worst violation was a discharge of more than 2 million gallons of industrially-contaminated stormwater that was sent into the headwaters of Miller Creek, after an employee accidentally left a gate valve open on the main Industrial Wastewater System pipeline. If the valve had been closed, the contaminated water would have gone, as was required, to the IWS treatment plant. No word as to whether fish were in the Creek at the time. This incident took place on 25 November.

On 5 December, turbid water was drained onto unstable soils adjacent to wetlands & Miller Creek. Turbid water entered wetlands, a side channel, & Miller Creek itself.

The last violation, on 15 December, appears to have been intentional. The contractor was caught pumping process wastewater from the wheel-wash water pond into stormwater Pond “M”, rather than sending it to an authorized treatment facility. This was an unauthorized discharge into the stormwater system, which is not set-up to handle this sort of contamination.

The violations are detailed in an “Immediate Action Order”, issued by Ecology on January 9.

Back to Page 1 of Newsletter