Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit
Discharges of excess nutrients — particularly nitrogen — to Puget Sound from domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are contributing to existing low oxygen levels in Puget Sound and the rest of the Salish Sea. The Clean Water Act and federal rules require WWTPs that contribute to water quality impairments by discharging excess nutrients to take action to prevent this pollution. The Nutrient General Permit applies to 58 domestic WWTPs discharging to marine and estuarine waters of the Salish Sea in Washington.
The Nutrient General Permit focuses only on controlling nutrients and works in conjunction with the WWTPs' existing individual permits. We ask that WWTP staff who have questions about their facility, individual permit, and the general permit to please contact their individual permit writer.
We issued the first Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit on Dec. 1, 2021. The permit is effective on Jan. 1, 2022, and expires on Dec. 31, 2026.
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The permit applies to 58 facilities that discharge to Puget Sound. Seven of those facilities are dominant loaders contributing over 80% of the nutrients. View our web map for more information.
Current permit documents
- Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit (effective Jan. 1, 2022)
- Fact Sheet and Appendices
- SEPA Determination of Non-Significance (DNS)
- Coverage Modification Form
- Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit Annual Report Instructions — Year 1
Financial Capability Assessment Guidance
As part of the permit implementation, permittees need to complete an economic evaluation. This evaluation, which includes an affordability assessment that looks at the impact to communities, is intended to help identify economically reasonable levels of treatment in the context of AKART (all known, available and reasonable methods of prevention, control, and treatment). We have finalized the Financial Capability Assessment Guidance and tools to help permittees with this evaluation.
Our guidance builds on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Financial Capability Assessment Guidance. This type of assessment helps identify the feasibility of the permittee to take on the financial costs of the project by considering factors such as debt capacity of a community, affordability of wastewater utility rate increases to impacted households, and disproportionate impacts to vulnerable populations. We specifically tailored our guidance to Washington State by including factors such as cost of living, describing impacts to low-income households more directly, and providing a list of funding resources.
We also provided information on how to submit the assessment to Ecology and a spreadsheet tool. This spreadsheet tool leads users through the details and steps of the calculations, how to obtain data, and automatically performs some of the required calculations including household impacts, municipal financial health, and community indicators of poverty.
During the summer of 2024 we posted the draft guidance, held two public workshops to share information and listen to feedback, and collected public comments. We made a number of changes to the guidance based on feedback and created a short document to answer questions and address some comments we received.
Documents
- Final Financial Capability Assessment Guide
- Financial Capability Assessment Tool (Microsoft Excel Worksheet)
- Focus on Financial Capability Assessment: Questions and Comments
Process for how we created the general permit
In January 2020, we announced our decision to move forward with developing a draft Nutrient General Permit in Puget Sound. During 2020, we worked with the General Permit Advisory Committee to develop recommendations for permit conditions. We held the first public comment period on the preliminary draft of the permit from Jan. 27 to March 15. We reviewed all feedback we received on this informal draft and developed a formal draft and related documents for review.
Next, we invited comments on the formal draft Puget Sound Nutrient General permit documents from June 16 to Aug. 16, 2021. We held public workshops and hearings in mid-July, where we explained the proposed changes to the permit and answered questions. View the workshop PowerPoint presentation. View the public comments that were made in the electronic comment form, or see Appendix C below for our full response to comments.
Permit issuance
We issued the first Puget Sound Nutrient General Permit on Dec. 1, 2021, effective on Jan. 1, 2022. The fact sheet and appendices provide the technical basis for the permit. The Response to Comments is an appendix to the fact sheet that addresses comments submitted during the public comment period.
More permit information
Tricia Miller
tricia.miller@ecy.wa.gov
206-594-0167
Mail forms to:
Washington State Department of Ecology
Attn: WQ Puget Sound Nutrient Permit Coordinator
Northwest Regional Office
15700 Dayton Ave. N
Shoreline, WA 98133
Carey Cholski
carey.cholski@ecy.wa.gov
360-407-6279
Mail forms to:
Washington State Department of Ecology
Attn: WQ Puget Sound Nutrient Permit Coordinator
Southwest Regional Office
P.O. Box 47775
Olympia WA 98504-7775
Related links
Contact information
William Weaver
Environmental Engineer
william.weaver@ecy.wa.gov
360-870-7424