NEDC sues Cannon Beach, Ore., as aging sewer system presents public health risks

The Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) has filed a federal Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuit against the City of Cannon Beach, Oregon, in an effort to protect local residents and visitors from dangerously high levels of bacteria in local creeks and beaches. According to details in a news release from NEDC, the lawsuit alleges that the city is regularly discharging pollutants, including bacteria and untreated human waste, to local beaches and the Pacific Ocean.

For years, local nonprofits and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have collected water quality samples at popular recreation locations in Cannon Beach. On numerous occasions over the past several years, polluted effluent discharged from the city’s stormwater outfalls at these locations — which then flows directly onto popular beaches —has contained elevated levels of fecal bacteria E. coli and Enterrococcus, NEDC reported. Recent DNA source tracing analysis by both NEDC and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality indicates that while dogs, elk, and other animal life may contribute to the bacteria pollution, much of it is of human origin.

These discharges of bacteria and untreated human waste have for more than a decade caused beach closures during the summer months, putting public health at risk. Residents and visitors often recreate in these waters as they make their way across the beach to the Pacific Ocean.

The Clean Water Act prohibits cities like Cannon Beach from discharging anything except stormwater runoff from stormwater collection systems. The regular presence of untreated human waste in the City’s discharges to local beaches indicates that these discharges are not composed entirely of stormwater, and are thus unlawful under the Act. NEDC is seeking an order from the Court requiring Cannon Beach to eliminate these unlawful discharges and come into full compliance with the Clean Water Act.

“It’s past time for Cannon Beach to address this issue,” said NEDC Executive Direction Jonah Sandford. “It is essential that the city perform a thorough investigation immediately into how this human waste is making it into the stormwater system and onto local beaches."

NEDC is represented in this case by Jamie Saul of the Wild and Scenic Law Center, and by Paul Kampmeier and Erica Proulx of Kampmeier and Knutsen, PLLC.

 

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