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Wash. to cut stormwater pollution from highways

The Columbian
Published: January 26, 2010, 12:00am

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state will do more to prevent polluted stormwater from running off state highways into rivers, lakes and Puget Sound.

In a legal settlement reached Tuesday, the state Department of Transportation agreed that whenever it builds new highways, it will also spend a little bit of money to retrofit old ones — thousands of miles of which were constructed without sediment ponds or other pollution controls.

The environmental law firm Earthjustice and the group Puget Soundkeeper Alliance challenged the DOT’s stormwater discharge permit last year, saying it didn’t meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act.

Earthjustice attorney Jan (YAHN’) Hasselman says the agreement is a small but important step in restoring the health of Puget Sound. Rainwater that washes toxins such as dissolved metals and pesticides into rivers is considered to be one of the greatest threats to protected salmon.

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