OLYMPIA, Wash. - Employer groups in Washington filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court challenging new water quality standards for the state put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) according to a press release from the Association of Washington Business (AWB).

AWB President Kris Johnson says the new standards adopted by the EPA cannot be met with current or foreseeable future wastewater treatment technology.

"This aspirational rule threatens the economic well-being of every community in our state by imposing disastrous compliance costs and failing to provide alternative methods to achieve regulatory compliance," said Johnson. "If our challenge of the EPA rule for Washington is successful, it will result in reinstatement of the state Department of Ecology’s 2016 water quality standards rule."

Along with AWB in the suit is the Northwest Pulp & Paper Association (NWPPA), the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Greater Spokane Inc. (GSI) and Food Northwest.

The lawsuit mentions that since the rule took effect in Dec. 2022, neither the EPA nor the Washington State Department of Ecology provided tools to help entities comply with the new rule.

"It’s telling that neither the state Department of Ecology nor the EPA has stepped forward to provide implementation tools to assist in these efforts," said Food Northwest President Dave Dillon. "The technology to meet these new water quality standards simply does not exist."

NWPPA Executive Director Chris McCabe notes that if permittees cannot meet the current requirements they could face legal challenges for non-compliance under the Clean Water Act, creating uncertainty for employers.

"EPA has created a no-win situation under this rule," said McCabe. "We do not believe Congress intended for EPA to create completely unattainable environmental standards when the Clean Water Act was adopted in 1972. We also believe this new EPA rule will frustrate Washington’s recently adopted BEST Act goals of creating 300,000 new manufacturing jobs by 2032. Purely aspirational environmental rules like this in fact put tens of thousands of labor-backed, family-waged jobs at risk in some of Washington’s more rural, and economically distressed communities."