King County will conduct more air quality, groundwater and traffic studies at the two sites being considered for the proposed Brightwater sewage-treatment plant.
The decision is in response to concerns raised about a King County report explaining the environmental impact of the $1.3 billion wastewater-treatment plant.
“As soon as we started getting comments and hearing public testimony, we heard loud and clear that people want us to take another look at those issues,” Brightwater project director Christie True said. “A lot of those comments are really framing what we need to do in those studies.”
King County has received more than 500 written responses to the study released in November. Snohomish County and several local citizens’ groups have criticized the report, saying it doesn’t include enough information.
The King County Department of Natural Resources study compares the pluses and minuses of the two Brightwater candidate sites: the “preferred” Highway 9 site near the intersection of 228th Street SE and Highway 9 north of Woodinville and the Edmonds Unocal site.
The report matches King County Executive Ron Sims’ assessment that Brightwater belongs at the Highway 9 site.
Snohomish County officials aren’t surprised further studies are being done, said Jim Hammond, who handles intergovernmental relations in the Snohomish County executive’s office.
“Our study of the (draft environmental impact statement) showed that there was a great deal of additional information required that wasn’t available initially,” Hammond said. “We’re pleased that they’re moving forward, but not surprised because it was plainly necessary.”
Many agencies were concerned about the report’s section on air quality, True said.
Instead of gathering detailed airflow information about the sites, which is important in determining odor control, the study used a model to predict air circulation. The study compares the Highway 9 site to Everett’s Paine Field.
“The engineers felt it was adequate for this date and time, but people really took exception to that,” True said.
A year’s worth of data from meteorological stations at both sites will be used for the next study, which will happen after May, True said.
King County also will take another look at how the project will affect traffic. The initial traffic study assumed that Referendum 51 would pass, providing funding for state transportation projects, including widening Highway 9.
Researchers also will conduct more studies examining how construction would affect groundwater, True said.
Those studies should have been done before King County issued its draft environmental report, said John Quast, a member of the Washington Tea Party, an Edmonds citizens group that opposes placing the plant at the Unocal site.
In other Brightwater news, Seattle Public Utilities is now agreeing with King County’s projections that the plant will be needed by 2010.
Seattle Public Utilities, which provides 1.3 million customers in King County with water, sewer and garbage service, had suggested two weeks ago that the plant may not be needed until 2030.
New information provided by King County persuaded Utilities Director Chuck Clarke to agree the plant may not be able wait that long, according to a letter Clarke sent the county last week.
Those factors include operational problems at King County’s West Point treatment plant; reaching capacity at the Kenmore interceptor, which pumps waste to plants, by 2010; and reaching capacity at the Renton wastewater-treatment plant by 2010.
Katherine Schiffner is a writer for the Herald in Everett.
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