SEATTLE — A federal judge on Wednesday set a timeline for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finalize water-quality rules designed to protect human health in Washington state.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein found “agency dereliction” occurred when EPA proposed clean-water rules for the state in September but didn’t finalize those rules within 90 days as required by the Clean Water Act.
The state submitted a plan Tuesday, so the order by the judge means EPA must approve it or finalize its own plan for the state by Nov. 15.
EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre said Wednesday the agency is still reviewing the ruling.
Environmental, tribal and other groups want EPA to reject the state’s plan and approve its own rule for Washington, saying the federal rules are more protective.
EPA has “already proposed a rule that they think it scientifically supported and we think is protective,” said Janette Brimmer, an attorney with Earthjustice representing Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association and others. Those groups sued the EPA in February to force quicker action.
“It’s got to decide thumbs up or thumbs down, we’re saying it has to be thumbs down because even EPA has criticized (the state plan),” she said.
Washington has been working on the so-called fish consumption rule since 2010 and missed many of its own deadlines. In September, the EPA stepped in and proposed rules for Washington in case the state did not come up with its own in a timely manner.
In submitting a plan to EPA on Tuesday, state Ecology Director Maia Bellon called the standards “protective and achievable” and said it could be approved by federal regulators.
