The Nooksack River basin is getting sullied with a type of bacteria found in poop, and concerned residents and groups in northwest Washington’s Whatcom County are blaming Canada.
Farmers in the county, along with the North Lynden Watershed Improvement District and the Whatcom Clean Water Program are calling on Washington and British Columbia leaders to work together to find a fix.
In a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee and B.C. Premier David Eby, farmers wrote that water contaminated with “extremely high levels of bacteria” is crossing the Canadian border and draining into the Nooksack basin, posing a pollution threat to the Portage Bay shellfish beds of the Lummi Nation and raising other health concerns.
