State agency investigates pollution and 13 years later discovers it was them

Thirteen years after Washington state's environmental agency found a creek severely polluted, the contamination has been traced back to the agency's regional office. City workers discovered this week that a sewer line from the building housing the regional offices of the state Department of Ecology and Department of Fish and Game, and a small U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contingent, was mistakenly connected to a storm water runoff system, rather than a municipal sewer main. As a result, sewage from the building has been entering Burnt Bridge Creek and eventually Vancouver Lake for an unknown number of years. Workers in the leased offices were stunned when they got the word Wednesday, The Columbian newspaper reported...AP