By Bill Sheets
For The Herald
EDMONDS — Those in the audience at a recent Edmonds City Council meeting were seeing red over the proposed Brightwater sewage plant.
The red, aside from citizen anger toward the project, came in the form of placards worn by about 20 people that read in mostly crimson-on-white, "EDMONDS OPPOSES SEWER PLANT."
Outrage wasn’t quite the tone of the evening, however, as the demonstrators were more interested in publicity than protest.
City council members were more bemused than bothered when several of the group walked up to the dais with signs attached to mini-plungers and sat them down next to the elected officials.
While the council issued a resolution in September opposing location of the plant in Edmonds, everyone in the room understood the decision lies in the hands of King County, not the Edmonds City Council.
"We are grateful for your support," John Quast, who in Dickensian garb stood out as the de facto leader of the group, said in a statement to the council.
"We want as many people in Edmonds as possible to be aware of the issue and send e-mails and write letters and call people" on the King and Snohomish county councils, Quast said later.
"This was to get some attention, and I think we did that."
The big target date for the group is Dec. 10, when the Metro King County Council will meet to address the issue.
On the table will be a proposed ordinance from King County Executive Ron Sims to limit further environmental studies to two sites — the Edmonds Unocal property and a parcel on Highway 9.
A public hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on the 10th floor of the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Ave. in Seattle.
Sims narrowed his preferred list from the six original sites down to two sites in September.
But members of the Brightwater Siting Advisory Committee, a panel of citizens and officials from north King and south Snohomish County, earlier this month asked Sims to restore two sites to the list for possible study.
The added sites are Point Wells on Puget Sound adjacent to Woodway and Shoreline, and the gravel quarry in Bothell.
The ordinance Sims has sent to the council shows no acknowledgement of the siting panel’s request.
But the county council will not be limited to action on Sims’ ordinance, with the authority to approve or postpone study on any of the whole range of choices, county spokeswoman Carolyn Duncan said.
The council, will meet at 9:30 a.m. the same day to send a recommendation to itself for possible action in the afternoon.
Public testimony will not be taken at that meeting.
Quast said he encourages calls to Snohomish County Council members in hopes they can influence their counterparts across the county line.
Edmonds Council Member Gary Nelson has been supportive of the Brightwater opponents’ cause, Quast said.
"All of the elected officials who represent Edmonds are very supportive," he said.
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