King County should do another draft EIS, say Sno Co officials

Published 11:51 am Friday, February 22, 2008

Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel said he’s disappointed King County has refused to write a second draft of an environmental impact report about the proposed Brightwater sewage treatment plant.

In a letter to King County Executive Ron Sims, Drewel said Snohomish County still believes writing a second version of the report is the best way to provide complete information about the plant and meaningful community involvement.

“We feel that such a step would have been in the best interests of both the citizens of Snohomish County and the project itself,” he said.

Yet Drewel said his office is prepared to work with King County officials, who are planning to conduct monthly public seminars from May through October in lieu of a second report. The seminars will feature information about the additional air quality, ground water and traffic studies that King County is conducting.

But Snohomish County Council members could be considering a stronger response. Council members planned to meet in a closed-door session April 1 to discuss potential litigation.

At a council meeting on Wednesday, March 26, Snohomish County Council member Gary Nelson said they agreed with some of the comments the Brightwater activists had made. He vowed to ask King County yet again to study the impacts of the new sewage-treatment plant.

“We will pursue our request again with King County,” he said.

“We’re all very disappointed King County didn’t honor our request,” added Council member Dave Gossett.

County Council member Jeff Sax, whose district includes one of the proposed sites for the sewage-treatment plant, says he hopes the council opts to take King County to court to force it to write a supplemental draft environmental impact statement.

Sax said he hopes such a move would derail the process of selecting a site for the plant.

Snohomish County and other groups have criticized King County’s first draft of the 800-page environmental report, saying it doesn’t include enough information about the $1.3 billion wastewater treatment plant.

King County received more than 5,000 comments about the report, which was issued in November.

Writing a second draft of the report would take too much time and keep the plant from opening by 2010, Sims said in a letter sent last week to Drewel and the council.

Sims plans to select the final site for the plant this fall. If the county does a second draft report, Sims would not be able to make a decision until 2004.

Katherine Schiffner and Brian Kelly write for the Herald in Everett.