By Janice Podsada
Herald Writer
King County Executive Ron Sims named the Edmonds Unocal site and a site near Highway 9 and 228th Street SE as finalists for construction of Brightwater, King County’s third wastewater treatment plant.
Sims made the weekend decision in Seattle. With his announcement, four candidate sites were knocked out of the running.
Thrasher’s Corner, the gun range and gravel quarry sites — located in the Bothell area — and the Point Wells site near Woodway were dropped from the list.
The two remaining sites, Edmonds Unocal and Highway 9, will move into the next phase of investigation.
In the next 18 months, both sites will undergo an extensive environmental study.
Sims is expected to make the final site selection in 2003.
Before selecting the two sites, Sims said he consulted with Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel and the Brightwater Siting Committee, a 21-member advisory board. The majority of its members are Snohomish County residents and officials.
Drewel said Monday he stood behind Sims’ decision.
"I am supportive of the recommendations Sims has made," Drewel said. "Our staff and I have worked very closely with everybody in King County on this selection."
But the decision didn’t sit well Monday with Edmonds officials; nor with more than 1,000 Highway 9 area residents who signed a petition this summer opposing construction of the wastewater plant in their neighborhood.
Signatures opposing the 108-acre Highway 9 site were collected by a local citizens group, the "Save Little Bear Creek Coalition."
Coalition members say Little Bear Creek, a salmon-bearing stream that crosses the site, would be harmed by the wastewater treatment plant’s construction.
"We are very disappointed with the decision," said April MacFie, who lives near the Route 9 site.
"There are concerns about the preservation of Little Bear Creek, the noise and the odor and the construction.
"We know the treatment plant has to go somewhere, but it’s just an awful lot of questions that we don’t think have been answered," MacFie said.
In Edmonds, the same skepticism prevailed. Only there, concerns focused around the 53-acre Unocal site.
The Edmonds City Council recently passed a resolution asking King County to drop the Edmonds Unocal site from the Brightwater candidate list, Mayor Gary Haakenson said.
Since 1993, Edmonds officials have planned to build a regional transportation hub, the Edmonds Crossing Project, on the Unocal site.
The transportation hub, which would locate bus, passenger rail and ferry traffic under one roof, is not compatible with a wastewater treatment plant, Haakenson said.
"If they want to put it here, they can put it here," Haakenson said, citing Brightwater’s status as an essential facility. "But if we’re going to be saddled with it, it will have to be on our terms."
The Edmonds Unocal site is a former oil storage facility that ceased operations in 1991. This summer, Unocal began an extensive environmental cleanup project that will take from five to 10 years to complete.
Drewel said he was aware of the Edmonds council’s objections. But with a planned environmental and transportation study, it remains to be seen whether the two facilities can co-exist.
"We will discover that as part of the process of looking into the Edmonds Crossing Project," Drewel said. "This might be the opportunity to find the funds to bring this project into being."
King County has promised to pay $35 million to $40 million in mitigation fees to the community in which Brightwater is located.
"Some of that could go toward the Edmonds Crossing Project," Drewel added.
In a few communities, notably the Bothell area, the announcement came as a relief to residents. The Thrasher’s Corner site, dropped from the list, would have displaced 26 homeowners.
Wyn Morgan, who stood to lose her home of 12 years, said she was relieved by Sims’ decision.
"We didn’t want to leave this house. This area isn’t the right place for it, even beyond having to remove homes. It’s such a family -type neighborhood."
The $900 million Brightwater wastewater treatment plant will serve north King County and south Snohomish County.
You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.
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