Juneau's wastewater plant has been out of compliance for three years, and ratepayers foot the bill

Juneau's main wastewater treatment plant has spent three years out of compliance with federal clean-water rules, its permit has expired, and the state is only now beginning the long process of issuing a new one.

EPA records list the Juneau-Douglas Wastewater Treatment Facility, which discharges into Gastineau Channel, as out of compliance in 12 of the past 13 quarters, and currently in "significant noncompliance." The current problem isn't a pollution limit: the records show the plant missed an August 2025 deadline to come into full compliance under an existing order, and didn't report that it had. Earlier entries did involve the water itself — a numeric effluent violation in 2022 and a sewer-overflow violation the same year — though no penalty is on record.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a preliminary draft permit Friday. For now it goes only to the city for a 10-day review; a formal draft and the 30-day public comment period come later, and no comment date has been set. The draft would allow a "mixing zone" for several pollutants — including ammonia, copper, fecal coliform bacteria and temperature — meaning those standards would have to be met at the edge of a defined area of the channel rather than right at the outfall pipe.

Whatever the new permit requires, Juneau sewer customers pay for it. At a February 2025 finance meeting, Assembly member Wade Bryson said local wastewater rates "are higher than other places in the state because we treat our water to a higher standard." At the same meeting, he said the city needed $20 million for the work but wanted to wait a year rather than put a bond question on the ballot.