Appeal update
The Pollution Control Hearings Board's decision on permit section S4 has been appealed (see PCHB decision below). We expect this process to proceed later this year.
In early 2021, we settled four appeal issues with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance (PSA) regarding the LID List Approach (see Appendix 1 of the Permits); that settlement resulted in Ecology providing additional clarification. In December 2021, the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) sent a notice that they intend to grant summary judgement to Ecology on six legal issues raised by the appeal, leaving only two issues for the PCHB appeal hearing. In January 2022, we reached a settlement agreement with PSA, therefore the PCHB canceled the appeal hearing.
The settlement agreement includes this language regarding Ecology’s commitments:
- Ecology and PSA agree in principle that retrofit requirements for Phase II permittees need to be appropriately scaled to the size and capacity of the individual jurisdictions.
- Ecology agrees to consider retrofit requirements for Phase II permittees as part of its process for developing the next Phase II Permit and proposes to utilize the work already in progress under the current Phase II Permit, the development of the Stormwater Action Plans, and the stakeholder process to inform a proposed retrofit requirement for the next Draft Phase II Permit.
- To develop the draft retrofit proposal, Ecology agrees to consider and assess scalable retrofit requirements based on amount of impervious cover, population size, growth, and other appropriate measures.
- As part of the permit development process, Ecology agrees to provide the rationale and legal basis for the permit decisions with the formal draft Western Washington Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permits.
Appeal documents
We will periodically update this page to include documents or decisions related to the appeal of the permits. For additional information, see the Pollution Control Hearing Board’s webpage for cases: P19-043c & P19-044.
PCHB decisions
Notices of Appeal
Consolidated appeal issues
Current permit documents
Comments on the formal draft 2019 permits
We held a public comment period on formal draft documents from Aug. 15 to Nov. 14, 2018. View the comments we received during the comment period.
We held a total of seven hearings and workshops across the state, including two webinars. During the workshops, we explained the proposed changes to the permits and answered questions. In Western Washington, the workshops also included information regarding the draft stormwater manual. The public hearings provided an opportunity for the public to give formal comments on the draft permit.