Drafter
Clerk 03/14/2017
Title
A MOTION providing for a report on causes, consequences and appropriate responses to the West Point Treatment Plant February 2017 emergency bypass discharge event.
Body
WHEREAS, the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant serves as the key wastewater treatment facility for a significant portion of the King County wastewater system, 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 causing the release of high volumes of untreated, combined flows of wastewater and stormwater directly into the Puget Sound through the plant's emergency bypass outfall and substantial damage to plant equipment and facilities ("the event"), and
WHEREAS, the secondary treatment process at the plant currently remains suspended, resulting in the continuation of minimally treated wastewater and stormwater discharging into the Puget Sound, and
WHEREAS, the wastewater treatment division has indicated that there have been previous occasions when effluent discharge pump functions were interrupted, requiring crews to quickly restore pumping functionality, and that after each such an occasion, the wastewater treatment division performed event evaluations as to the causes and response to the pump function interruption, and
WHEREAS, the council has responsibility for monitoring operations, reviewing and approving planning, defining policy, adopting operating and capital expenditures and reviewing and establishing rates and fees for the wastewater treatment system, and
WHEREAS, the public needs to know the causes of the event and how it can be avoided in the future, and
WHEREAS, meeting the council's responsibility and the public's need, in the context of the event, requires a formal tool to provide a clear assessment as to causes, facility damage, full recovery timeline, appropriate preventive systems and lessons learned, and
WHEREAS, pr...

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