Two environmental groups say they plan to sue Tacoma for allegedly discharging toxic materials from the city’s Central Wastewater Treatment Plant that are poisoning Puget Sound chinook salmon — a federally protected species.
The organizations, Northwest Environmental Advocates and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleged that the city is violating the Endangered Species Act by discharging “contaminants of emerging concern” to the Puyallup River estuary and Commencement Bay from its Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, 2201 Portland Ave. E.
The groups contended that studies over the past decade showed the city’s treated sewage reduced the survival rates of the salmon to nearly half of juvenile fish swimming through other Puget Sound estuaries, according to a joint news release released Tuesday. They blamed largely unregulated pollutants that have purportedly decreased growth and caused reproductive issues in the salmon…