The Shoreline City Council voted Jan. 12 to appeal King County’s $1.35 billion wastewater treatment facility, proposed to be built in south Snohomish County along Highway 9 north of Highway 522.
The Brightwater project proposes to send treated water through tunnels under Shoreline and part of Lake Forest Park to exit into Puget Sound at Point Wells. Construction of the tunnels will require up to five access shafts or portals to be built in Shoreline to bore the deep tunnels.
The county released its final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on the project Nov. 19. Jurisdictions have until Jan. 20 to submit appeals.
Shoreline officials felt several issues needed further consideration.
Two primary portals are planned at Point Wells and on Ballinger Way at 15th, and the FEIS addresses mitigating the impacts of building these portals. The FEIS does not address, however, the impact made by the three secondary portals that are proposed at Eighth and 205th, Ballinger Way and the Aldercrest Annex and at Meridian and 205th. Brightwater officials have said the three secondary portals will likely be eliminated from the design. Shoreline City Council wants that to be finalized.
City officials also want the county to further address the traffic and noise impact on neighbors that construction of the portals will cause, odor control concerns and to consider barging in and out the equipment and materials needed for construction at Point Wells rather than trucking it out through Richmond Beach streets.
Legislative priorities
The Shoreline City Council set its legislative priorities at the Jan. 12 meeting.
Key priorities for the city include protecting revenue sources and opposing any new unfunded mandates to come out of Olympia. The city also wants support for capital projects such as the Aurora Corridor project and Interurban Trail.
The city will support a new tax system that would change the way sales tax is collected from point of sale to point of delivery, and would give the city $141,000 in additional revenue.
The city opposes reducing the maximum tax rate in the mini-casino industry.
The Council voted to support legislation for a city option for electronic pull tabs gambling, if at least half of the tax returns to the city. The motion was made by Council member Bob Ransom.
Council member Maggie Fimia made several motions that were approved unanimously by the Council. She made the city’s environmental stance tougher, calling for the city to support “best available science” in state and federal clean water and water resources regulations.
She also pushed to have the city support involving residents and other major stakeholders in the redevelopment planning process of the Fircrest campus, a state-owned facility for the developmentally disabled that is being down-sized.
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