Green energy project to require temporary West Point beach and trail closure, Sept. 14

Public safety a priority while work is under way

A project to convert biogas into heat and energy at King County’s West Point Treatment Plant will require a short-term closure of the beach and nearby trails in Seattle’s Discovery Park. Work is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14, and may take up to three days to complete.

To protect public safety, King County will work with the Seattle Parks Department and local police and fire departments to keep people a safe distance from the plant while workers connect newly installed generators to the digesters that create biogas as a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process.

The work will require a controlled release of biogas from the top of the digesters. As a precautionary measure, public access to North and South Beach, the Lighthouse at Discovery Park, and the nearby beachfront parking lot area will be posted as closed. Depending on atmospheric conditions, temporary odors may be detectable during this work. Odors will not occur when the new cogeneration system begins normal operation.

Closure signs will also be posted on Utah Avenue and along trails leading down to the beach near the treatment plant. To ensure that the public is protected, beach closure will be enforced by a uniformed officer. Scheduling the work midweek after peak summer season will help King County minimize impacts to neighbors and park users.

The work is being carried out as part of West Point Treatment Plant’s Waste-to-Energy project, which includes the installation of a new cogeneration system to convert digester gas into a source of heat for the treatment plant. Some of the gas will be converted to electricity and sold to Seattle City Light.

An $8.2 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to cover a significant portion of the project’s construction cost.

When the new cogeneration system begins operating in 2012, it will produce about 23,000 Megawatt-hours of electricity each year, which is equivalent to the electricity needed to power nearly 2,300 homes.

For more information about this project and the upcoming construction work, please contact Monica Van der Vieren at 206-263-7301, 711 TTY or monica.vandervieren@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

West Point Treatment Plant

King County Wastewater Treatment