The lime-green cloud of deadly chlorine gas drifted away from the small town, carried south on the gentle breeze, where it dissipated into the forest. A safety device apparently failed and caused a series of explosions, releasing the chlorine gas at the pulp mill in the town of Cosmopolis, just south of Aberdeen. According to a newspaper report, the pulp mill has had three large explosions in the last three years.
The explosions of July 11 and the resultant gas cloud caused the evacuation of mill employees and nearby residents, as well as the closing of Highway 107 and U.S. 101. Although the gas cloud was not sufficiently concentrated to kill anyone, older people and those with asthma would have been at risk if the wind had not been in a favorable direction. The people of Cosmopolis worry about the potential danger under which they live, but accept it because the pulp mill is vital to the town’s very existence.
We in Edmonds face the possibility of being home to King County’s mega-sewage plant and all its attendant hazards. Chlorine is only one of the dangerous chemicals used in treating sewage. Only the most naive would believe nothing will ever go wrong here. There is absolutely no guarantee that even the best designed, state-of-the-art plant will never once fail in the hundred or so years of its expected life.
Edmonds isn’t Cosmopolis. Our existence doesn’t depend on a sewage plant. It’s the other way around. A mega-sewage plant in the heart of Edmonds threatens our existence. It stands to ruin our economy, our quality of life, our home values, our health – you name it. And it’s all the more galling that it’s someone else’s sewage we’ll be treating.
The sewage will be piped in from northern King County and southeast Snohomish County. In the case of an accidental release of a dangerous chemical, we could not rely on a gentle breeze to carry the cloud safely away from our town out into Puget Sound (or south to Woodway). Too many times we have a layer of inversion that would trap the gases in the Edmonds bowl.
The heart of a populous town is no place for a mega-sewage plant. Yet, under current state law, King County Executive Ron Sims has the legal right to site his Brightwater sewage plant in Edmonds. However, no one, absolutely no one, has the moral right to do this.
Edmonds
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