Enforcement Response Plan

Whenever industrial wastewater dischargers violate the terms of their permits or authorizations, the King County Industrial Waste Program must use its enforcement powers.

The main intent of enforcement is to focus dischargers on correcting violations as soon as possible. Industrial Waste staff uses its Enforcement Response Plan to see that:

• violating conditions are corrected soon;
• dischargers are treated consistently by the County;
• economic advantages of violations are eliminated;
• King County recovers expenses caused by violations; and
• enforcement actions are taken in a timely manner.

Violations of discharge, permit, and other requirements range from relatively minor to major. King County bases the enforcement response to each violation on a number of factors, including the severity and duration of the violation and the discharge and enforcement history of the company.

Companies with discharge or permit violations are subject to additional inspections and monitoring through the Post-Violation Inspection and Monitoring Program (PVIMP). The objective is to see that companies take corrective actions and return to compliance. Companies subject to PVIMP must pay fees which recover King County’s expenses.

The entire Enforcement Response Plan is published in a King County Public Rule.  Those wanting information about specific violations or companies that have committed violations should e-mail Doug Hilderbrand or phone him at (206) 263-3032.

Above, an Industrial Waste investigator uses a hand-held pH meter to take a pH reading of a wastewater sample as part of an inspection to test whether a violating company has returned to compliance with regulations.