Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, June 29, 2009

Sewage treatment a clear priority

Lake Stevens wastewater plant will treat sewage nearly to drinking-water quality, but Ebey Slough will be the recipient.

By Bill Sheets
Herald Writer

 LAKE STEVENS -- The big hole in the ground with the cranes and the rebar along Highway 204 will eventually play an important role in the lives of people around Lake Stevens.

It will serve as the place that treats the wastewater for the area.

The Lake Stevens Sewer District's $94 million plant under construction at 7110 Ninth St. SE is scheduled to be finished in 2012, district manager Darwin Smith said. Ground was broken in March.

The district is building the plant for three reasons.

First, the current plant at 500 Sunnyside Blvd. is in the Ebey Slough flood plain. It flooded twice in the 1970s and has had several close calls since then, Smith said.

Second, the plant is nearing its capacity.

Third, the new plant will have state-of-the-art technology and will treat sewage to near-drinking water standards. The water will be clean enough to discharge into Ebey Slough, Smith said.

The plant will use membrane bioreactors, in which the wastewater is run through upright, boxlike structures fitted with many thin, hollow polymer tubes. The tubes filter the solids out of the wastewater, and the tubes are then scoured with water to wash the solids away.

Most of the treated water will go into the slough at the beginning, Smith said. "Ultimately we'll be looking for other opportunities to use that water in other ways."

The new plant is south of the current plant, far enough up the hill to be out of the flood plain but low enough to save on pumping costs.

Smith, who has managed the district since 1981, has been planning for this plant for about 20 years, he said. The current plant was upgraded in the '70s, '80s and 2000, but he said he knew another would eventually be needed.

"I'm very proud of this plant," he said.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA