The stink wafting from the long-running battle over the Brightwater sewage treatment plant may finally be dissipating.
The gap over how much King County should pay to build new parks, improve roads and restore wetlands in Snohomish County to offset the impact of building Brightwater in the county has closed from $91 million to $30 million.
Although still testy from relations that have soured in recent weeks, officials from both counties have agreed to set up two teams of negotiators to try to close the remaining $30 million gap.
Then they will need to agree on how to spend the money.
“The dollar amount is not as important as what you use those dollars for,” said Gary Nelson, chairman of the Snohomish County Council.
Both counties will also work to find a process for Snohomish County to oversee how Brightwater is built and to resolve several lawsuits King County has filed against its neighbor to the north.
The counties still differ on the type of review the plant must go through. Snohomish County wants a public review of Brightwater that allows public comment. King County, saying the site near Highway 9 and Highway 522 is already zoned for a sewage treatment plant, wants an administrative review.
Last year, Snohomish County asked King County to spend $109 million to offset the effects the $1.48 billion sewage treatment plant would have on people who live near the site.
King County wanted to pay $18 million on those projects, saying it had already committed $50 million for mitigation of the Brightwater site and $25 million for mitigation of the pipeline to carry treated water to Puget Sound.
Snohomish County is now asking for $80 million, and King County is offering $50 million.
King County in May filed several suits claiming that Snohomish County was intentionally delaying the plant. King County also has called on Gov. Christine Gregoire to impose financial sanctions on Snohomish County, and has threatened to impose moratorium on new building in south Snohomish County and adjacent parts of King County if Brightwater construction doesn’t start this summer.
“We’re willing to sit down and talk about any of these things,” said Nelson, adding that King County is to blame for slowing things down.
“We haven’t delayed anything,” Nelson said. “They’re the ones who are bringing forth the lawsuits. They’re their own worst enemy right now.”
Brightwater project director Christie True, who works for King County, said the lawsuits were filed because Snohomish County has adopted ordinances on earthquake dangers and odors that seek to slow the start of construction.
“It hasn’t been King County that has been on the offensive,” she said. “We’re on the defensive.”
True said construction must start this year if the new treatment plant is to open in 2010, when the county expects to run out of capacity at its two current plants.
“We’re going to defend our project,” she said.
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