Clean-water utility earns national environmental awards

In addition to providing clean water for regional users, King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s commitment to environmental excellence and outstanding record of compliance with state and federal permits has earned the agency two prestigious awards from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
 
Both the King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s South Treatment Plant in Renton and the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle received Platinum Peak Performance awards for attaining 100 percent compliance with their respective National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit effluent limits under the federal Clean Water Act and the state’s Water Pollution Control Law.

The Peak Performance Awards program, presented by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), recognized public wastewater treatment facilities for their outstanding compliance records in the 2009 calendar year.

Platinum level awards indicate multiple consecutive years of compliance. To date, South Treatment Plant has attained 12 years of 100 percent permit compliance with its effluent limits, and West Point Treatment Plant has attained eight.

To comply with state and federal discharge permit effluent requirements, the county’s treatment plants must remove various pollutants from the wastewater to meet set limits for biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, fecal coliform counts and total residual chlorine. The permit conditions also require each plant to conduct regular sampling and testing of both its untreated and treated wastewater.

Each day, King County’s two regional treatment plants treat and disinfect nearly 200 million gallons of wastewater for more than 1.5 million people in the greater Puget Sound region.

More information about the Peak Performance Awards and list of King County’s prior rankings is available on the Web at http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/About/System/TreatmentProcess/PeakPerformance.aspx.

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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 1.5 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 nearly 50 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

Related information

Peak Performance Awards

King County Water and Land Resources