Brightwater project staff respond to Kenmore sinkhole

It's believed the 30-foot-long, 15-foot-deep sinkhole is likely related to a nearby Brightwater tunnel construction project. One of the project's tunnel boring machines had been operating overnight about 150-feet-under ground in the vicinity of the sinkhole.

County employees have notified police, fire officials, and local utilities.

To protect public safety and enable repairs, at least one lane of Northeast 61st Avenue and the west sidewalk will be closed to public access. Wastewater Treatment Division employees will work with the City of Kenmore and King County Roads to arrange 24-hour traffic control during repair.

The Brightwater project includes a treatment plant now under construction at the intersection of State Route 9 and SR-522 north of Woodinville, a 13-mile conveyance tunnel that will run beneath SR-522, Northeast 195th Street and the King-Snohomish County line, and a deep-water marine outfall a mile off of Point Wells in Puget Sound.

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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 districts 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.

Note to editors and reporters: Visit the WTD Newsroom, a portal to information for the news media about the Wastewater Treatment Division, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Newsroom.aspx.

This release is also posted on the Web site for the Department of Natural Resources and Parks at http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/dnrp/newsroom.aspx.