Public invited to celebrate four decades of clean water

Open house Oct. 8 at regional wastewater treatment plant in Renton

2005 Archived News

For four decades, a wastewater treatment plant in Renton has been cleaning dirty water from as far north as Mill Creek in south Snohomish County and as far south as a bit of northeast Pierce County near Auburn. And it's treated the wastewater from most other cities and sewer districts in east and southeast King County.

So King County is celebrating the 40th anniversary of effective wastewater treatment in our region with a public open house at the South Treatment Plant from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. The plant is at 200 Monster Road S.W., Renton, near Southwest Grady Way and Interstate 405.

King County's Wastewater Treatment Division wants to thank its customers for their support in protecting public health, water quality and the environment. During the open house, the public is invited to tour the treatment plant and learn about the past, present and future of the regional wastewater treatment utility.

Visitors can also meet some of our region's clean-water pioneers, see historical displays and photographs, enjoy some refreshments, shake a fin of Bert the Salmon, and see how the plant recycles treated wastewater for beneficial uses.

More information about the open house and South Treatment Plan is available on the Web. Directions to the plant are available at on the Web. Reasonable disability accommodations will be available at the open house on request. Call 206-296-8361 or 711 (TTY) for more information.

The South Treatment Plant now serves people in Algona, Auburn, Beaux Arts, Bellevue, Black Diamond, Clyde Hill, Covington, Hunts Point, Issaquah, Kent, Kirkland, Maple Valley, Medina, Mercer Island, Mill Creek, Newcastle, Pacific, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, Tukwila, Woodinville and Yarrow Point.

The treatment plant also serves the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and the Alderwood, Cedar River, Coal Creek, Cross Valley, Lakehaven, Northeast Sammamish, Northshore, Sammamish Plateau, Silver Lake, Skyway, Soos Creek and Val Vue sewer districts. In addition, the plant accepts and treats 17 million gallons of wastewater a year that's pumped from thousands of septic tanks in the King County region.

Every day, the plant treats an average of about 100 million gallons of sewage. About 100 million gallons a year gets extra treatment for use as reclaimed water to irrigate ball fields in Tukwila, a wetlands nursery and nearby street plantings. Using methane gas from the treatment process, the plant also can produce 8 megawatts of electricity with a fuel cell and gas turbines. And more than 55,000 wet tons of cleaned solid material from the plant is used as a soil amendment in agriculture, forestry and compost.

Residents of King County voted in 1958 to create an independent wastewater treatment agency called the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, or Metro. The South Treatment Plant began operating in 1965. In 1993, voters approved the merger of Metro's wastewater and water quality functions (and its public transit function) with King County.

No longer called Metro, the regional wastewater utility is now a division in King County's Department of Natural Resources and Parks. The clean-water agency serves 17 cities, 17 local sewer utilities and more than 1.4 million residents in three counties.

King County also operates the regional West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle and a small treatment plant on Vashon Island. And it's planning a regional plant to take over treatment for the growing population in south Snohomish County and north King County as well as a small plant for the City of Carnation.