ARLINGTON — The city plans to celebrate Wednesday the grand opening of its water reclamation facility and its new stormwater wetlands.
The projects are among the largest ever undertaken in Arlington, and are of significant environmental benefit to the Stillaguamish River, said city public works director James Kelly.
The upgraded and expanded sewage treatment plant is considered among the best in the nation in terms of efficiency and the quality of water it returns to the river, Kelly said. It’s been featured in national trade magazines and been visited by public works people from across the country.
Its new filtration processes are the best available and the water released is at least 15 times cleaner than water produced by the former plant, he said. The plant exceeds the state’s new water- quality requirements, state Ecology officials have said.
The $35 million project was funded by several low-interest loans from the state Public Works Trust Fund, two highly competitive state and federal grants loans from the Department of Ecology, and about $2 million from the city’s sewer utility reserve fund.
Across Highway 9 from the water reclamation facility, the city’s stormwater wetlands project is nearing completion.
The 27-acre wetlands is expected to cost close to $1 million, more than half of which comes from two grants from the state Department of Ecology.
Stormwater from gutters and ditches in old town Arlington will end up in a holding area that empties into a stream in the wetlands. As this meandering stream flows through the wetlands, pollutants in the water are expected to settle along the streambed and be filtered out by native plants growing there. The wetlands should be able to handle the water produced in the worst of storms and floods, Kelly said. Before, the stormwater went straight into the river.
The city’s wetlands property was once home to a family farm. One of the buildings on the property will be used for educational purposes, offering a venue for teaching people how to prevent pollution, how the wetlands work and the history of the site, Kelly said. The wetlands also is now part of a string of riverside parks in the city.
Take a tour on Wenesday
Public tours of the treatment facility and the wetlands begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Dedication speeches by Mayor Margaret Larson and Rep. Rick Larsen at 11 a.m. are to be followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and refreshments, as well as additional tours.
For more information, call 360-403-3526.
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