Fire, police training planned for vacant office building in north Bothell

2005 Archived News

King County is working with local fire and police departments and emergency response teams to conduct drills and training at the vacant State Farm building at Northeast 195th Street and North Creek Parkway in Bothell. The training is scheduled to begin in January.

The building is now owned by King County, which offered it to fire and police departments as temporary training space in a vacant commercial structure. This training opportunity is part of county and local agency commitments to worker safety and emergency preparedness. The police training will include use of paint-ball guns to add realism to the exercise.

King County's Wastewater Treatment Division plans to demolish the building in spring 2005, before pipeline construction that's scheduled to begin in early 2006. The site will be used as a staging area for building an underground wastewater pipeline for the Brightwater Treatment Plant north of Woodinville. A wastewater pump station will also be built on the site.

Most of the training will take place inside the building. No fires or controlled burns are planned. Signs will be posted at the site telling people that training is in process.

Most training will take place during normal business hours. Some training may occur on weekends so volunteer firefighters can participate.

The Brightwater plant will protect public health and water quality by treating wastewater from homes, businesses, schools and offices in south Snohomish County and north King County. Wastewater from the growing population in the Brightwater service area is now treated at plants miles away in Renton and Seattle.

For more information about the training, future construction or the Brightwater project, call the Brightwater project office at 206-684-6799 or 888-707-8571 (toll free), or send an e-mail message. You can also visit the Brightwater Web site.

King County's Wastewater Treatment Division serves 18 cities, 16 local sewer agencies and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Now operated by King County, the regional wastewater-treatment utility formerly known as Metro has been preventing water pollution for 40 years.