Upthegrove and Raw Sewage
West Point Treatment Plant Feb 9, 2017
King County’s Mismanagement
The massive sewage spills from King County sewage plants is well-documented, and widely remembered for closing beaches. Here are the facts:
Upthegrove had been a Member of the King County Council for over three years when the sewage spill happened in February 2017.
“In 2013, the people of South King County elected Dave to be their voice and vote on the King County Council.,” — King County Council, https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/council/governance-leadership/county-council/councilmembers-districts/dave-upthegrove/about
The sewage spill resulted in the massive dumping of 30 million gallons of raw sewage into Puget Sound.
“The flood on Feb. 9 at the West Point Treatment Plant was unprecedented, both in the damage to the facility and the amount of untreated wastewater released to Puget Sound, on Feb. 9, 15 and 16 totaling 235 million gallons, including 30 million gallons of raw sewage..” — Seattle Times, April 28, 2017 https://projects.seattletimes.com/2017/west-point/
“One hundred and eighty million gallons of storm water, including 30 million gallons of raw sewage, went into the sound that night. For a time the digesters, in the solids treatment process, kept working. But when power failed in this area "sludge began to produce gases and foam that forced the lids and belched liquid out of the digesters and onto the surrounding plant site" ("Final Report," 21). https://historylink.org/File/20503
Sewage spills happened year after year, closing beaches and poisoning shellfish.
“The three-day advisory was posted by the Kitsap Public Health District Friday following a 3 million gallon spill of untreated sewage from King County's West Point Treatment Plant. King County reported the spill was a combination of stormwater and wastewater and said the problem was caused by a power surge early Friday. Workers responded by sending the water into Puget Sound through an emergency outfall pipe for about 30 minutes, in order to prevent flooding in the plant, King County said.” Kitsap Sun, 7/23/19
“About a half-dozen beaches in King and Kitsap counties reopened Monday after a sewage spill last week forced precautionary closures.
“Power failures at the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle resulted in a 3-million-gallon sewage spill into the Puget Sound on Friday, and several beaches were shut down to protect the public from contamination. Seattle’s Discovery Park reopened its north and south beaches, which are adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant, on Monday afternoon, according to a statement from Public Health — Seattle & King County.” Seattle Times, 7/22/19
An Indian Tribe threatened to sue and King County agreed to a settlement costing millions
"King County has been violating Clean Water Act standards since 2015," [Leonard] Forsman said. "The dumping of sewage waste into Puget Sound must stop." — Bainbridge Island Review (July 22, 2020)
“SEATTLE (AP) — Two years of Puget Sound sewage spills totaling more than 6 million gallons have driven the Suquamish Tribe to threaten a lawsuit against King County for the violation of clean-water laws.
In a letter to King County officials this week, lawyers representing the tribe stated the tribe’s intent to sue the county within 60 days for violation of the Clean Water Act because of sewage spills from its West Point Treatment Plant in 2018 and 2019, The Seattle Times reported. That’s in addition to other violations of county permits reported by King County to its regulator, the state Department of Ecology.
The biggest spill noted by the tribe came on July 19 last year just as the Suquamish Tribe was welcoming 40 canoe paddlers and hundreds of guests to its reservation for the annual Tribal Canoe Journey. An order from the health department warning to have no contact with the water had the tribe scrambling for clean shirts and washing stations for guests as they arrived on their shores.”
“This is the hard part of the job for me sometimes as a chairman, when we have to take these drastic actions against people we have partnered with before,” Forsman said …. “The problem is, this keeps happening … Our fishermen and our elders expect us to protect our ancestral waters.” AP July 24, 2020. https://apnews.com/general-news-f6a5ed6c564be2e14917f2bab6d11bd7
The county agrees to pay the Suquamish Tribe $2.5 million to compensate for impacts associated with the last five years of discharges and future tribal impacts from any additional spills that might occur through the end of 2024. After Jan. 1, 2025, if any sewage is discharged from WPTP's emergency bypass, the county will pay a penalty to the tribal mitigation fund for each spill.
To reduce or eliminate future untreated sewage spills, King County agrees to substantial infrastructure upgrades at WPTP. The upgrades include replacing faulty uninterruptible power supply, addressing voltage sag, and creating redundant capacity to deal with peak flows.
A strict and enforceable penalty framework is tied to the infrastructure upgrade deadlines, and, if missed, the county is required to pay $40,000 for a missed deadline and $10,000 for each additional month of delay.
The county will complete supplemental environmental projects tied to nearshore habitat restoration or other mutually agreed environmental protection projects in the amount of $2.4 million within five years.
"The entire Puget Sound community deserves clean water. The shellfish, orca, salmon, crab, geoduck and shrimp all rely on a healthy marine environment, and all of our children – and children's children – deserve clean water," Forsman concluded. (Bainbridge Island Review, 9/29/22) https://www.bainbridgereview.com/news/king-county-to-pay-suquamish-5-million-for-sewage-spills/