County recommends project to control North Beach combined sewer overflows

Recommended alternative favored by community; public meeting on Oct. 19

King County today announced its recommendation for a project that will improve water quality in Puget Sound by controlling combined sewer overflows in Seattle’s North Beach community.

In addition to meeting permit and engineering requirements, the recommendation received strong support from community members over a seven month public process that focused on three proposed alternatives.

To control overflows of stormwater and wastewater that can occur during heavy rains, King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division is proposing to build an underground storage pipeline in the public right-of-way beneath Triton Drive Northwest and Northwest Blue Ridge Drive. The planned 12-foot-diameter, 325-foot-long pipeline would be able to store approximately 230,000 gallons of stormwater and sewage that could later be conveyed to West Point in Seattle for treatment after storms subside.

A public meeting will provide interested community members with additional information on the recommended project:

• Tuesday, Oct 19 -- North Beach Basin CSO Control meeting, Loyal Heights Community Center, 2101 NW 77th St., Seattle, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

Additional information is available on the project website: http://www.kingcounty.gov\CSOBeachProjects.

For questions or to arrange reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities at the Oct. 19 meeting, please contact Monica van der Vieren at 206-263-3701 or 711 TTY, or e-mail monica.vandervieren@kingcounty.gov.

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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, the environment and the economy 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

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