Industrial Waste Program fees and surcharges

Wastewater Discharge Permit Fee: $2,065

Wastewater discharge authorizations and Letters of Authorization: are issued for smaller discharges or for discharges of limited duration. The program issues discharge authorizations for up to five years. The fee covers King County's costs in administering the permit. Note that the Letter of Authorization fee is still charged if authorization is not used, e.g. when projected construction dewatering does not take place and authorization is not used.

Major Discharge Authorization: $1,420

Minor Discharge Authorization: $650

Letter of Authorization: $240

Companies and facilities with industrial wastewater discharge or permit violations are subject to fines of up to $10,000 per violation per day. Dischargers are also liable for any damages and additional costs caused by their discharges.

Facilities that the Industrial Waste Program monitors for heavy metals or FOG pay fees to cover the cost of this monitoring.

2009 Heavy Metals Monitoring: $0.002321/gallon
2009 Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) Monitoring: $0.000261/gallon

The program collects surcharge fees from facilities discharging industrial wastewater with characteristics that incur higher wastewater treatment costs. Facilities discharging waste having a Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) greater than 300 mg/l or Total Suspended Solids (TSS) greater than 400 mg/l pay for King County's cost to treat this high-strength waste.

2009 surcharge fees:

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD): $0.169684/pound
Total Suspended Solids (TSS): $0.290762/pound

Industries that are typically subject to surcharge fees include:

• Bakeries
• Breweries and wineries
• Commercial laundries
• Dairy products
• Meat and fish processing
• Soft drink bottlers
• Tanker truck cleaning

These fees apply only to companies that violate pretreatment permit requirements and receive additional King County monitoring and sample analyses. Fees recover costs of this monitoring.

2009 fees:

Metals Grab - $195.00

Metals Grab (collected with metals composite) - $390.00

Metals Composite - $360.00

pH Grab - $165.00

pH Continuous (installation) - $145.00

pH Continuous (per week of operation) - $145.00

Fats, oils and grease (FOG) Set - $370.00

Volatile Organic Analysis (VOA) Grab - $435.00

VOA Composite - $610.00

Base/Neutral & Acid Extractables (BNA ) Grab - $435.00

BNA Composite - $600.00

Cyanide Grab - $245.00

Cyanide Composite - $405.00

Mercury Grab - $190.00

Mercury Composite - $355.00

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) - $300.00

Total Suspended Solids (TSS) - $230.00

Enforcement Write-up; No Further Action - $220.00

Enforcement Action - $630.00

Inspection - $240.00

---

Other King County sewage fees

1. 2008 King County Operations Charge: $31.90/RCE*
This charge recovers King County's costs for transporting and treating sewage, as well as building and maintaining the sewerage system. *RCE = 750 cubic feet

2. 2008 Capacity Charge: $47.64/month/RCE
King County levies this fee for all residential, commercial, and industrial connections to the sewerage system in King County's service area whose home or building was newly connected to the King County sewer system on or after Feb. 1, 1990.

3. Note: sewer charges are applicable to water discharged from all discharges including contaminated industrial stormwater (CISW), groundwater remediation projects (GW), and all forms of construction dewatering discharges (CDW); collectively called CISW/GW/CDW discharges.

In 2008 -09 KCIW has been working with local sewer agencies ensure more consistent collection of these sewer charges. With a dramatic increase in the number of KCIW-issued authorizations for these types of discharges over the past 10 to 15 years, the county's goal is solely to recover its costs for treating this wastewater.

If your project discharges water into the King County sewer system from one of the sources noted above, you can expect to pay sewer charges. In May 2009 KCIW recommended billing procedures to the local sewer agencies discharging to the King County sewer system to ensure there is a consistent county-wide approach to collection of sewer charges for these non-traditional discharges. Under normal circumstances sewer charges are based on the amount of water delivered to a property, less any exempt uses such as water that goes into a product. However since the water from CISW/GW/CDW sources normally doesn't originate from a delivery system through an incoming water meter, there hasn't been a consistent policy or approach to the application of sewer charges. Now a policy has been developed.

The Metropolitan Water Pollution Abatement Advisory Committee (MWPAAC) is a King County Council-authorized committee made up of the local sewer agencies that discharge to the King County sewer system. Following several meetings where MWPAAC members discussed this matter, most agencies are opting to collect sewer charges for these discharges that will include local agency costs as well as county's cost for treatment. Under the sewer treatment contracts between King County and the agencies, King County can recover sewer treatment costs even if an agency chooses not to.

Regardless of the billing policies of the agency, KCIW ensures that the local agency is notified of any discharger, or potential discharger, that will operate within the agency's jurisdiction.

Other information:

• All discharge authorizations issued by KCIW include a requirement for the discharger to comply with all applicable local agency requirements.
• In almost all cases a discharger is required to report the volume of water discharged by its project to KCIW and if requested, or required, to the local agency. 
• All CISW/GW/CDW dischargers are required to file final volume reports with KCIW. The frequency and timing of reports is dependant on duration of the project.
• If the project discharges for more than a year, the sewer billing will probably be no less frequent than annually, it will also depend on the local sewer agency's billing practices.
• In the case of construction dewatering projects the sewer charges will normally be billed following the closure of the project.

Contact: Dischargers with questions as to who will be assessing sewer charges should contact the KCIW compliance investigator working with your operation (see contacts, lower left of page.)