Drafter
Clerk 05/08/2017
Title
A MOTION providing for a half-century evaluation and report on the West Point Treatment Plant.
Body
WHEREAS, the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is the flagship of the region's wastewater system, serves as the key wastewater treatment facility for a significant portion of the system's service area, and
WHEREAS, the plant experienced a major system failure in the early morning of February 9, 2017, with the result that the plant was inundated by major internal flooding and that the emergency bypass discharge was activated, resulting in the release of high volumes of untreated, combined flows of wastewater and stormwater directly into Puget Sound ("the event"), and
WHEREAS, the plant was constructed over fifty years ago, and began operations in 1966, and
WHEREAS, the operating context of the plant, including the dramatic population growth in the plant's service area, the substantial regional increase in impermeable cover over the region's land surface, existing and projected weather-related impacts of climate change, the county's adoption of a comprehensive plan that concentrates growth and housing patterns, the development of heightened environmental standards and regulatory requirements, the increase in the region's industrial base as a contributor to wastewater flows and similar developments, present a more complex and challenging operating environment for the plant as compared to the period of its initial construction, and
WHEREAS, plant managers have indicated that peak storm flows are regularly reaching and exceeding the four hundred forty million gallons per day capacity limit of the plant, and
WHEREAS, as with any aging, complex capital facility, it is appropriate to consider any contextual, functional, design and engineering constraints of the facility that have emerged over the period of its operations, to position it for continued service to the region, and
WHEREAS, the past half-century has provided a...

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