April 12, 2006
Brightwater construction officially underway
Celebrating the beginning of construction on the region's most significant clean-water project in 40 years, King County Executive Ron Sims and more than 300 local dignitaries and community members today broke ground on the $1.6 billion Brightwater treatment system project.
"Today is a day we can unite in our vision of the future – clean water, a healthy environment, enhanced communities, and infrastructure to support the needs of our growing region," said Sims.
When it comes online in 2010, Brightwater will be the third regional wastewater treatment plant in a system serving King, Snohomish and Pierce counties since the 1960s. Brightwater will protect public health, the environment and the economy by providing enough sewage treatment capacity to serve the growing population of the central Puget Sound region over the next several decades.
The advanced treatment technology at Brightwater will also enable the plant to become a significant source of high-quality reclaimed water for non-drinking uses such as irrigation and industrial processes.
"King County's plan to expand the use of reclaimed water from Brightwater for irrigation and industry will help us save fresh water for drinking, and significantly reduce the amount of water being taken from the Sammamish River for irrigation," Sims said. This will help preserve critical salmon habitat while supplying a significant new, drought-proof source of water to irrigators or industries."
Speakers also included Snohomish County Council Chair Kirke Sievers; King County Council Chair Larry Phillips; Jeannie Summerhays, Northwest Regional Director of the state Department of Ecology; and Sam Anderson, Executive Director of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.
"Our leaders in the 1950s and 60s took the courageous steps to build a regional wastewater treatment system and today our children and grandchildren are able to swim in Lake Washington and reap other benefits of this regional forward thinking," said King County Council Chair Larry Phillips. "Building Brightwater protects this legacy for our future."
"The Master Builder's Association is very proud to have been a part of making this happen," said Sam Anderson, executive director of the Master Builder's Association. "Elected officials should emulate the drive of King County Executive Ron Sims, who saw the urgency of building this essential regional public facility, fought for it when the going got rough, and compromised to make it happen when he needed to do so. Moving forward with Brightwater is truly a win-win for the economy and the environment."
"Brightwater is not just any wastewater facility. It will be environmentally front and center in our efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound," said Jeannie Summerhays of the state Department of Ecology. "The membrane bioreactors that will treat wastewater will produce an effluent 70 percent cleaner than conventional wastewater technologies. And Brightwater's creative and equitable mitigation will protect the environment and quality of life in communities hosting the facilities."
Attending the event were state and local elected officials and tribal government representatives; representatives of cities and sewer districts served by King County; staff from King County 4Culture; project staff from the Wastewater Treatment Division; environmental and community groups; project consultants and contractors; and interested residential and business neighbors.
In addition to the treatment plant, which will treat 36 million gallons of wastewater a day, the Brightwater system will also include a 13-mile conveyance pipeline, a pump station in Bothell, and a 600-foot-deep outfall in Puget Sound a mile off Point Wells. Plans have been approved to include reclaimed water distribution pipelines in the same tunnels being built for Brightwater.
Brightwater will serve people in north King and south Snohomish counties, and about 70 percent of the wastewater treated at Brightwater will come from Snohomish County. Wastewater from this area is now treated at South Plant in Renton or at West Point in Seattle.
Detailed information about the Brightwater project is also available.
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 and water quality by serving 17 cities, 17 local sewer utilities and more than 1.4 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 more than 40 years.