'The Irony Is Not Lost On Us'

Imagine how many people were hassled by this crew over the years and it turns out they're the biggest polluters around.

The state Department of Ecology in 1996 officially declared Burnt Bridge Creek to be severely polluted with fecal coliform.

The environmental regulators, it turns out, had unwittingly contributed to the problem.

This week, Vancouver city workers made a startling discovery near the regional office shared by Ecology and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at 2108 Grand Blvd. At some point in the building's history, a sewer pipe that was supposed to be connected to the city's sanitary sewer main had been incorrectly connected to a stormwater line instead.

"The only thing that's supposed to be in the stormwater pipe is rainwater," said Brian Carlson, Vancouver's public works director.

Instead, raw sewage flowed out of the building and into an underground stormwater system that runs for almost a mile. Collecting stormwater runoff from a wide swath of central Vancouver, the intermingled goop dumped directly into Burnt Bridge Creek where it passes under Fourth Plain Boulevard. It is one of 80 stormwater outfalls entering the creek, which ultimately drains into Vancouver Lake.

State employees shut down a pair of restrooms in the building Wednesday.

City officials agreed to repair the problem at the building owner's expense, which should allow agency personnel to go about their business of protecting the environment as usual by next week.

"The irony is not lost on us," Carlson said.

State officials, who lease the building, believe the problem dates back to the 1970s when the building opened as a satellite garden center to a Fred Meyer retail store across Grand Boulevard.

Employees were stunned by the news.

"As a person who loves her area and the environment, it was like, 'Holy crap, let's get this taken care of,'" said Laura Sauermilch, a spill-response specialist who was the first to be informed of the problem by a city worker on Wednesday.

Jay Manning, the agency's state director, called the discovery "embarrassing and upsetting."

Employees immediately posted signs on the doors of the men's and women's restrooms, directing almost 100 workers based in the office to find other alternatives. By Thursday, a half-dozen porta potties and portable hand-washing stations had been brought in.

Melinda Merrill, a Fred Meyer spokeswoman in Portland, said the company constructed the building a few years after the 40,000-square-foot retail center opened across Grand Boulevard in 1968.

Merrill said the retailer intends to cooperate in sharing information, even though it no longer owns the property.

The building's current owner is pressing for a quick resolution.

"I'm just horrified," said J.D. Watumull, vice president of Honolulu-based Watumull Properties. "We're just trying to get it rectified and back to the way it was."

Local and state agencies have yet to sort out the legal matter involving what could be construed as a violation of clean-water laws. Normally, law enforcement is handled by the Department of Ecology.

"We wouldn't automatically leap to a penalty," said Kim Schmanke, an Ecology spokeswoman based in Lacey. "We would look to correct the problem and if it's corrected, then move forward."

Oh, OK, let's just move forward.

If this were any other business they'd be treated like monsters, dragged into court, forced to pay massive penalties and run out of business.

Buyt then the environmentalists themselves are guilty? Eh, let's move forward.