Clean-water utility earns national recognition for environmental excellence

‘Platinum Awards’ reflect outstanding record of permit compliance

King County's Wastewater Treatment Division has earned two prestigious awards from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) for outstanding compliance with state and federal environmental permit requirements.

The 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 the effluent limits established by their respective National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limits under the federal Clean Water Act and the state’s Water Pollution Control Law.

Platinum level awards indicate multiple consecutive years of compliance. To date, South Treatment Plant has attained 13 years of 100 percent permit compliance with its effluent limits, and West Point Treatment Plant has attained nine.

NACWA’s annual Peak Performance Awards honor public wastewater treatment facilities for their outstanding compliance records in the 2010 calendar year.

To comply with state and federal discharge permit effluent requirements, King County’s treatment plants must remove various pollutants from the wastewater in order 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.

South Plant treats wastewater from east and south King County, southeast Snohomish County and northeast Pierce County.

West Point treats wastewater from Seattle, north King County and southwest Snohomish County.

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

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

Peak Performance Awards

King County Water and Land Resources