The Herald should revisit its article from this spring on Edmonds’ Waste Water Treatment Plant (“Edmonds launches technology to destory PFAS,” The Herald, April 18). The project to replace an incinerator with gasification is a costly, colossal failure.
Despite many trials, the gasification system installed by EcoRemedy hasn’t worked and likely never will. The city put treatment plant Manager Ross Hahn on leave after he stated in a seminar that the plant wasn’t operating. Is he being disciplined for telling the truth?
I testified against this project when it first came before the City Council. Edmonds had no business experimenting with gasification, a process that works best with predictable, consistent fuel sources like wood waste. Previous staff sold the project as “green,” energy-saving and able to destroy toxic “forever” PFAS chemicals. Now all the plant does is squeeze and sanitize liquid from raw sewage. The poop, instead of being turned into usable energy, is shipped to a landfill. The folks across the street have endured another summer with stinky containers parked outside their open windows.
What now? Expensive litigation? Where will Edmonds and other project partners (Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Olympic View Water and Sewer District) send our poop? Will King County take it? At what cost? The only “green” things about this project are the millions flushed on flashy, failed technology.
Liz Brown
Edmonds
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