Nothing to see or smell

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, December 6, 2003

Picture this: On a brisk morning, a man walks his dog on a tranquil trail lined with lush vegetation. He breathes the fresh air and throws a stick for his pet to fetch.

He’s totally unaware that he’s within that stick’s throw of a sewage treatment plant.

Could this be King County Executive Ron Sims’ optimistic vision of the $1.35 billion Brightwater plant 10 years from now?

Perhaps.

But this scene was just another Wednesday at Discovery Park in Seattle.

For nearly 40 years, the West Point treatment plant has treated 133 million to 440 million gallons of sewage a day. But it was the 1995 expansion of the 32-acre plant on the tip of Discovery Park’s peninsula that really got neighbors riled up.

Less than 10 years later, most park regulars know the plant is there but generally don’t give it a second thought.

"It’s been fairly well-run," said 68-year-old Bill Walters, who was walking his dog. The 16-year Magnolia resident goes to the park three times a day.

Walters has a message for residents grappling with Sims’ decision announced this week to site the Brightwater plant on Highway 9 just north of Highway 522 in Snohomish County.

"Nobody wants it in their backyard," he said, "but it’s something you have to have, or things will be a lot worse."

Looking at Discovery Park and its surrounding area now, neighbors and Seattle Parks officials say they would still rather not have the plant. But they just as quickly praise King County for its work to keep it unobtrusive, and for the millions of dollars the county has provided for new city parks, a swimming pool, an information center at Discovery Park, and many other projects that otherwise would never have been completed.

Discovery Park is the jewel of the Seattle parks system, if not the entire Puget Sound region. Its 534 acres of open space, walking trails and beaches draw visitors from all over the area. The secluded site includes two miles of protected tidal beaches, along with open meadowlands, dramatic sea cliffs, forest groves, sand dunes, thickets and streams.

The park’s surrounding neighborhood of Magnolia features some of Seattle’s most expensive homes, with sweeping views of Puget Sound and downtown Seattle.

So when Metro, the then-regional wastewater treatment governing agency, started the process to upgrade and expand the West Point plant for secondary treatment, neighbors were worried.

Bob Kildall was president of Friends of Discovery Park, one of several groups involved in a lawsuit that claimed Metro, which has since merged with King County, was violating the state and city shoreline act by expanding the plant.

The shoreline board’s 1990 decision came to a tie vote, but eventually an agreement was struck that limited the expansion to the same 32 acres that the plant already used.

"It went over about 20 years," Kildall said. "There were four or five different groups involved who were watching this very, very carefully."

The plant now runs three stories underground but is hardly visible from within the park. It’s buffered by trees and, even from Shilshole Bay looking inland, is barely distinguishable, looking like a green, terraced hillside.

"It’s sort of an invisible presence," said Dewey Potter, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Parks Department.

Greg Nies, 33, who lives in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and visits the park about four times a week, said odor from the plant is noticeable some days in the summer.

"It’s actually a nice walk down to the plant," he said.

Doug Harman, 36, of West Seattle agreed.

"I’ve seen it, it’s huge," he said. "But overall, it’s really well-done. It’s impressive that you can’t even see it until you’re standing right next to it."

Christie True, Brightwater’s project manager, said design plans for the new Brightwater plant are similar to those at West Point in that trees will line Highway 9 and the plant on 114 acres will barely be visible from the road.

King County says a new wastewater treatment plant is needed by 2010 because its facilities at Magnolia and Renton will be at capacity by then. Since 60 percent of the sewage will come from Snohomish County, it is being sited here. However, the pipeline containing treated sewage that will lead to Puget Sound will go through part of King County.

The Snohomish County Council on Oct. 22 placed a six-month moratorium on building such facilities in the county, but that move is not expected to delay the project, which is set to begin construction in 2005.

The plant will treat 36 million gallons a day when it opens, and 54 million gallons a day later on. It will be paid for with bonds, and service charges to users will pay off the bonds.

Anyone interested in filing an appeal to the project has until Monday to contact King County. Then they have until mid-January to file the appeal.

The project is expected to provide 20,000 family-wage jobs, 6,000 in construction alone, and have a payroll of $400 million.

Along with the economic benefits of the plant, True said there will be other benefits.

While residents aren’t buying it, she said walking trails and bike paths — perhaps one connecting to King County’s popular Burke-Gilman Trail — will draw visitors.

"You would never think to get out of your car and walk along there," True said. "But there are opportunities … to create something that pedestrians and bicyclists would want to go to and makes it feel safe."

True said King County is generally happy with the West Point plant, but acknowledges concerns about odor. She said while the county is working on retrofitting the odor issues, the concern isn’t comparable with Brightwater, which will feature far more technologically advanced odor controls.

Still, officials at the West Point plant said they only receive an average of about 10 phone calls a year from people complaining about the smell.

"With the older facilities (West Point and the south treatment plant in Renton), retrofitting and trying to cover everything will never be as perfect as Brightwater, but we know that we can do a better job than what we’ve done out there to do that," True said.

Seattle parks officials and Magnolia residents urge Highway 9 residents to keep King County’s feet to the fire as the plant is being built. That will be the best way to make sure the plant is run well and to get the most out of the $88 million King County is providing the area to make up for the plant’s impact.

"Sometimes, the prospect is more daunting than the reality," said Potter of Seattle parks. "The mitigation funds can buy for a community things that will last forever for the public to enjoy. We have new parks, new buildings and improved beaches that we could never have done otherwise."

Kildall agrees.

"When you take a place as beautiful as Discovery Park, and get out there and look at the mountains and the water and the wildlife — eagles and all kinds of things — would it be better without the plant? Absolutely," Kildall said. "But if the question was, did (King County) keep the promises and have they added something that the city could have never had? That’s true."

Reporter Victor Balta 425-339-3455, e-mail vbalta@heraldnet.com.