QUILCENE — A lawsuit filed by a wildlife advocacy group saying that the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery lacked a federal wastewater discharge was settled last month when the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife agreed to issue a permit and reimburse the group’s court costs.
At the center of the argument was whether fish hatcheries should be required to obtain Clean Water Act wastewater discharge permits.
“This is important because it supports a sense of fairness,” said Mark Hersh, a biologist for the Wild Fish Conservancy in Duvall, which filed the lawsuit.
“The government should lead by example, and there shouldn’t be one set of rules for fish hatcheries and another for everyone else.”
The federal government’s response to a 60-day notice of intent to file a lawsuit “was that the facility did not need a permit because an [Environmental Protection Agency] regulation exempted it,” said the conservancy in a prepared statement.
Ron Wong, who manages the federal Fish and Wildlife hatchery, said that the facility was not large enough to require a permit.
The lawsuit also said that the facility discharged pollutants such as nutrients, solids, and disinfectants into the Big Quilcene River from the hatchery’s fish ladder.
Fish ladder
Hersh said the ladder, which allows fish into the river in order to spawn, was not operational and did not allow the fish to migrate.
Wong said the fish ladder was in disrepair for several years but now has been fixed.
Wong said the area where the conservancy said waste was being discharged has also been repaired, but he also said that little or no pollutants emanated from that source.
He said that he had submitted permit applications through the years but had never heard back from the EPA.
“We never got the permits but we continued to submit the necessary reports that showed we were in compliance with water quality standards,” he said.
On Wednesday, Wong said that he had completed the permit application and submitted it to the EPA.
“Fish hatcheries, like any other facility or factory, must comply with all the appropriate laws,” said Kurt Beardslee, conservancy executive director, in the group’s statement.
“In this case, it was clear to us that this facility needed a permit and we are glad that the federal government finally agreed with us.”
The suit was filed in 2008, and the conservancy lost the first round in U.S. District Court.
The group had filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Federal Court when the federal department offered its settlement.
“This was surprising,” Hersh said.
“But there was a new administration, and the government has been on the wrong side of so many environmental lawsuits and were looking to clear some of them up.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
