The good news? Environmental officials in Vancouver solved a long-standing water-quality problem. The bad news? They found their own office was the cause.
Thirteen years ago, the Washington State Department of Ecology discovered that Burnt Bridge Creek, a tributary of Vancouver Lake, was severely polluted with fecal coliform bacteria but could never identify the source. It wasn’t until Vancouver began surveying stormwater pipes with a television camera that the mystery was solved.
A sanitary sewer line in one of the department’s office buildings had mistakenly been connected to the storm sewer, most likely when the building opened in the 1970s as a garden center. That business closed, and since 1997 the building has housed offices for about 100 employees of the state’s Department of Ecology, the Department of Fish and Game, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
“The irony is not lost on us,” the city’s public works director said. The problem should be corrected within the week.