By Janice Podsada
Herald Writer
EDMONDS — Protesters opposed to locating the Brightwater sewage treatment plant here greeted King County Executive Ron Sims outside Edmonds City Hall Tuesday. Sims, on his way to meet with Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson, didn’t register surprise at encountering 40 protesters in his path.
But protesters were clearly surprised when Sims told them that his mother lives in Edmonds.
"She told him to make a decision that would ‘make her proud,’ " said Elaine Yard, who braved the chill to hoist a "Edmonds Opposes Sewer Plant" sign outside City Hall.
Sims, who will make the final determination in early 2003 as to where King County’s third sewage treatment plant will be located, is no stranger to Edmonds or its waterfront.
"He told us he and his mother go walking down by the beach," protester George Everett said. "If this gets built, they’ll look up and see the beautiful sewer plant."
The other Brightwater candidate site is along Highway 9 near Bothell.
D.J. Wilson, one of the organizers of Tuesday’s protest, said he worried that the decision to locate the sewage plant in Edmonds has already been made, even though extensive environmental reviews of the Unocal site and Highway 9 site aren’t expected to be completed until late next year.
Wilson said the Highway 9 site, which is in the Bothell area, may look less attractive to King County officials because of the additional costs associated with piping the effluent to a location so far from the treated water’s outflow into Puget Sound.
"We’re right here on the water," Wilson said.
In particular, protesters were concerned with the Unocal site’s proximity to an adjacent wetland, the Edmonds’ Underwater Dive Park at Brackett’s Landing North, and a nearby salmon hatchery, the Deer Creek Hatchery.
Hulda Humola, 95, hiked the mile from City Hall to Admiralty Way and the Edmonds Marina to protest.
"I don’t like the way that (Snohomish County Executive Bob) Drewel hasn’t been sticking up for us. I can’t understand the power he has in Snohomish County."
Humola said she was pleased with the Edmonds City Council’s stance on Brightwater. The council recently voted its unanimous opposition to the plant.
Locating Brightwater on the edge of downtown Edmonds, an area known as "the bowl," would mean the city would play host to three sewage treatment plants, Wilson said.
"The bowl of Edmonds would take on a new connotation," Yard added. "It would become the toilet bowl of Edmonds. It gives new meaning to the term privy council."
You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.
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