Title
AN ORDINANCE updating and streamlining King County industrial waste program fees; and amending Ordinance 11034, Section 6, as amended, and K.C.C 28.84.060.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The King County industrial waste program is funded by fees paid by regulated industries.
2. The federal Clean Water Act requires wastewater utilities to have a pretreatment program in place for industrial waste discharges and King County administers its industrial waste program under a delegation of authority from the Washington state Department of Ecology.
3. The current industrial waste fee structure was developed in the 1980's under the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle ("Metro"), adopted into code in 1993 with the merger of Metro into King County, and last amended in 2010.
4. King County's industrial waste program administers regulations to ensure the wastewater generated by industries is treated properly to protect employees, the wastewater treatment process, facilities, and water quality.
5. Issuance fees for reviewing applications and developing permits and other authorizations for industrial waste discharges are the same under the existing fee structure for all facilities, no matter how complex.
6. The compliance monitoring and administration fee structure is based on water volume and only two types of industrial chemicals: heavy metals and fats, oils and grease. Using water volume solely to set fees does not reflect the cost of serving the various types of industrial customers in our region today.
7. Surcharge fees currently combine the costs for both treatment of high strength wastes at the treatment plant and compliance monitoring and administration by King County industrial waste program staff, which can make it harder to track actual costs.
8. King County's industrial waste program is developing a new fee structure that would be based on the cost of providing service, be easier to implement and administer, and provide for more certainty for industry.
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