King County Executive Sims announces bold new vision for county's wastewater utility

For community members celebrating Earth Day with King County Executive Ron Sims, the open house at Seattle's West Point Treatment Plant was more than a retrospective of the plant's role in protecting public health and water quality for 40 years. Sims today unveiled a bold new emphasis for the county's sewer utility, one that will help address the new environmental challenges as global climate change increasingly impacts the region.

"Today, I am proud to announce a significant update in our vision reflecting people's expectations that we move beyond just being a clean-water agency," said Sims. "Our new vision is 'creating resources from wastewater.'"

"We already recycle 100 percent of our biosolids, we recover digester gas and use it to run our facilities, and on a small scale, we produce reclaimed water that we already use at our treatment plants. Our new vision is intended to help increase our focus to create even more resources from the wastewater we treat."

Sims outlined a number of measures where the county is expanding its treatment of wastewater to recycle it into resources -- to the benefit of both the ratepayers and the environment:

• Reclaimed water - Over the next few years, the county plans to work with water utilities in the region to widen its distribution of reclaimed water to potential irrigation and industrial customers. Reclaimed water is excellent for non-drinking uses such as irrigation and industry, and making it more widely available will save drinking water for drinking and protect salmon-bearing streams by easing the need for irrigation water withdrawals from the Sammamish River.
  
• Electricity - King County will continue exploring technologies to harness the power from waste gasses, like methane, to create clean electricity. The 1 megawatt fuel cell power plant project at South Treatment Plant in Renton produces enough energy to power 800 homes. Fuel cells can operate on a range of fuel, including methane produced in large quantities through the treatment process.
  
• Natural Gas - The county's treatment plants use gas generated during the treatment process for other energy needs. At the South Treatment Plant, biogas is scrubbed to pipeline quality and sold to Puget Sound Energy.
  
• Biosolids - Both the county's plants produce nutrient-rich biosolids now used as a soil amendment in agriculture, forestry and compost. The county's biosolids are in high demand by farmers in Eastern Washington to grow hops and wheat, and by forestry to revegetate logging roads and clear cut areas. In decades past, this valuable material was once put in landfills or incinerated. Biosolids will also fertilize canola, which in turn will be used to produce biodiesel fuel.

Speakers at the event also included King County Council Chair Larry Phillips and community leader James R. Ellis, who led the citizen effort to create Metro and build the existing regional wastewater treatment system now operated by King County.

"I am proud of the direction in which King County Services are moving, building on Jim Ellis' legacy of strong environmental stewardship," said King County Council Chair Larry Phillips, who also lives in the Magnolia community. "We have made a lot of progress in the 40 years that West Point has been here. And I am committed to making sure that King County continues to honor its promises to the community that West Point will be a good neighbor."

King County hosted the open house to thank its customers and neighbors of the plant for their support in protecting public health, water quality and the environment, and also to give them the opportunity to see how the facilities will continue serving them in the future. The event offered a variety of educational and family-oriented activities that included treatment plant tours, guided walks on nearshore ecology and archeology, and information on natural yard care that included how to make a worm bin.

Visitors also saw historical displays and photographs, viewed artwork from students at Dimmit Middle School, watched Native American drumming and dancing by members of the Suquamish Tribe, and enjoyed some refreshments while learning how the plant creates resources from wastewater.

People enjoy clean water and a healthy environment because of King County's wastewater treatment program. The county’s Wastewater Treatment Division protects public health and water quality by serving 17 cities, 17 local sewer utilities and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Formerly called Metro, the regional clean-water agency now operated by King County has been preventing water pollution for more than 40 years.