Drafter
Clerk 01/21/2021
Title
A MOTION requiring a report on the January 13, 2021, discharge of untreated wastewater into Puget Sound from the West Point Treatment Plant and several pump stations.
Body
WHEREAS, on the morning of January 13, 2021, the King County West Point Treatment Plant discharged eleven million gallons of untreated wastewater into Puget Sound, and
WHEREAS, the discharge was directed through the emergency bypass system of the plant, during a heavy rainstorm that featured high winds and voltage fluctuations in the plant's power feed, and
WHEREAS, the discharge, while it did not result in plant flooding or injury to employees, nevertheless presented significant impacts to the marine environment and required the closure of public beaches at area parks, and
WHEREAS, in addition to the West Point Treatment Plant discharge, there were several other discharge events at pump stations located at various points along system conveyance lines, including the East Pine, Medina and Richmond Beach pump stations, resulting in additional overflows amounting to the spillage of 2.4 million gallons of untreated wastewater into local water bodies, and
WHEREAS, as much as 2.2 million gallons of wastewater overflowed into Lake Washington from the East Pine Pump Station resulting from a power outage. The flow volume on the night of the storm also overwhelmed the pumping capacity at the Medina Pump Station, resulting in a spill of 100,000 gallons of wastewater into Lake Washington, and at the Richmond Beach pump station, which spilled 165,000 gallons of wastewater into Puget Sound, and
WHEREAS, other jurisdictions with waterfront bordering central Puget Sound also closed beaches and took actions to limit public access, and
WHEREAS, absent corrective action, there is no reason to expect that coming operational periods will witness any mitigation of the contributing factors to the discharges, such as heavy rainstorms, accompanied by high winds, and fluctuation...

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