King County Industrial Waste annual report

2025 annual report

Read the 2025 annual report (14MB)

In 2025, violations by KCIW-regulated companies and facilities did not cause problems at King County’s wastewater treatment plants. Specifically, there were no NPDES exceptions for effluent discharges into Puget Sound at any of the plants attributed to an industrial facility. Additionally, metal concentrations in biosolids continued to meet the strictest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards.

The following are highlights of KCIW activities in 2025:

• Issued 188 wastewater discharge approvals (new, renewed, and revised control documents, including letters of authorization, minor and major discharge authorizations, and waste discharge permits).

• Inspected and sampled all significant industrial users to meet the federal pretreatment requirement of once per year.
• Issued enforcement actions against those that violated requirements, including major actions involving significant noncompliance.
• Submitted an application and received approval from U.S. EPA regarding the Cross Media Electronic Reporting Rule (CROMERR) to receive electronic reports. 
• Made major progress on the Industrial User Comprehensive Survey by performing the following activities: purchasing a list of businesses in the WTD service area, updating the survey instrument, selecting a subset of businesses that would receive the survey, and mailing surveys to approximately 11,000 businesses.
• Revitalized the Hauled Waste program by increasing sampling of trucks at the South Treatment Plant septage receiving site, developing a fact sheet to distribute to haulers, and providing improved communication and coordination between KCIW, South Plant operations staff, and the King County Environmental Laboratory.
• Hired four new Compliance Investigators to fill vacancies left by retiring staff as well as newly funded positions. Promoted an existing KCIW staff member to a project manager position to better coordinate and oversee special projects and initiatives such as the Comprehensive Industrial User Survey and the CROMERR project.
• Engineering staff conducted important pretreatment system reviews and continued to work on a new engineering design review manual.
• Developed a number of policies regarding surcharge treatment fees.
• Presented at the National Association of Clean Water Agencies Conference in May 2025 regarding a major enforcement action.
• Hosted four treatment plant tours for industrial users to learn about the Wastewater Treatment Division’s treatment processes and the reasons why they are regulated and what KCIW is trying to protect.