FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contacts:
Teryn Yazdani, Columbia Riverkeeper: 503-933-7636
City of Quincy Agrees to Clean Up Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant
Settlement includes $400,000 to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation for projects benefiting water quality
November 17, 2025 (Portland, Ore.) — In a significant win for salmon and water quality in the Columbia River Basin, the City of Quincy, Washington has agreed to a settlement with Columbia Riverkeeper that will resolve a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit and ensure the city’s industrial wastewater treatment facility complies with its permit.
As part of its settlement, the City of Quincy will make a $400,000 Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) payment to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama Nation for projects benefiting water quality and aquatic habitat in the Yakima River Basin, an area covering 6,100 square miles in south-central Washington within the Columbia River Basin.
“The Yakama Nation will use SEP funding, in combination with other funding sources, to support a riparian restoration project on the Yakima River adjacent to the Yakama Reservation,” said Tom Elliott, Yakama Nation Fisheries Project Manager. “The plans are to plant native riparian trees and shrubs, predominantly cottonwoods and willows, to help redress historic and ongoing loss of riparian forest because of river regulation.”
A SEP is a voluntary, environmentally beneficial project that is negotiated as part of a Clean Water Act settlement. SEPs provide environmental or public health benefits in close proximity to where the resolved violation took place. In this case, the SEP will support a decades-long restoration effort.
“The restored riparian forest will help improve water quality by trapping sediment and providing shade to the river and side channels,” Elliott added. “This project is part of a decades-long program of fish habitat restoration by the Yakama Nation in the Yakima River basin, with the aim of supporting the recovery of salmon, steelhead, and lamprey to healthy and harvestable population levels.”
Columbia Riverkeeper, represented by Kampmeier & Knutson, PLLC, brought the complaint to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in late 2024, seeking relief from the City of Quincy for repeated and ongoing violations of the terms and conditions of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit authorizing discharges of pollutants. In an area with a longstanding history of agricultural industry-induced environmental issues, this facility violated pollutant limits over the last five years and frequently failed to sample its wastewater for pollutants as required by its permit.
“This settlement is a win for clean water,” stated Teryn Yazdani, Columbia Riverkeeper Staff Attorney. “We hope this settlement with the City of Quincy can serve as a reminder to other cities that our environmental laws must be followed.”
As part of the agreement, the City of Quincy will prepare a revised operations and maintenance manual for the facility, and conduct a thorough compliance action plan that will commit the city to several upgrades over the next year.
Resources:
- Consent Decree
- Original Complaint