King County announces recipients of ‘Green Grants’ funding

Grants fund local community environmental projects that help combined sewer overflow control efforts and support goals around Lower Duwamish cleanup

King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division, in partnership with Seattle Public Utilities and WRIA 9, recently awarded six “Green Grants” to small-scale environmental projects that help combined sewer overflow control efforts and support cleanup goals for the Lower Duwamish.

A total of $150,000 in grant funding is going to two local businesses and four community groups in the Duwamish Valley. King County is providing $125,000 in grant funding for projects that will help control new and ongoing sources of pollution in the Duwamish River, assist in combined sewer overflow (CSO) control and support Superfund source control work there. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is providing $25,000 for a local business to treat stormwater runoff.

Grant recipients are listed:

• Marine Lumber Services, Inc. was awarded $25,000 to reduce a large source of arsenic in the combined sewer system by installing canopies to protect treated lumber stacks from rainwater. 
• Toth Enterprises was awarded $25,000 from SPU to create green infrastructure to filter runoff from surrounding buildings and parking areas before it enters the stormwater system.
•  Puget Creek Watershed Alliance/Garden Cycles was awarded $25,000 to help reduce CSOs by removing invasive plants near the Sanislo School wetland area and replacing them with native evergreen trees to better intercept stormwater runoff during heavy winter rains. The project will also provide area students with hands-on education about how green stormwater infrastructure can reduce polluted runoff.
• People for Puget Sound was awarded $25,000 to support King County’s source control efforts in the Superfund site  area by building public awareness around the benefits of Low Impact Development techniques, such as rain barrels and rain gardens.
• Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS) was awarded $25,000 to provide workshops, outreach, education, onsite technical assistance and incentives to educate small businesses in Lower Duwamish communities about compliance with city and state stormwater codes to protect the current and future health of the river.
• South Park Area Redevelopment Association was awarded $25,000 to increase the ability and effectiveness of community-based design ideas to remove polluted stormwater from streets within the CSO drainage basins or along the Duwamish River. The grant also provides hands-on educational opportunities, with ways to increase public participation and awareness for the environmental issue of stormwater pollution and how green stormwater infrastructure can reduce polluted runoff.

The Lower Duwamish Waterway “Green Grants” Program is administered by King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks and the WRIA 9 Watershed Ecosystem Forum, which also oversees salmon recovery in the Green/Duwamish River.

For more information about Duwamish “Green Grants” visit http://www.govlink.org/watersheds/9/funding/SmallGrants.aspx or contact John Phillips at 206-263-6543 or email john.phillips@kingcounty.gov.

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

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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.

Related information

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King County Wastewater Treatment Division