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February 10, 1999 Contact: Kenmore Pump Station Weathers Storms The recent record rains have been a test under fire for King County's Wastewater Treatment pump station at Kenmore. Aggressive measures to stop storm-related overflows where the Sammamish River meets Lake Washington have done the job so far this year. Despite more than twice the amount of average rainfall during the last three months the system has not had a single overflow. The last overflow was during a major storm in March 1997. Since the storms-related wastewater backups that occurred during the winter and spring of 1996 and 1997, King County wastewater managers have pursued an aggressive plan to protect public health and public and private property by reducing emergency overflows at the Kenmore pump station. King County has contracted with the City of Edmonds at a cost of $500,000 to treat some of the wastewater flow that used to be pumped through Kenmore. Emergency pumps have been purchased to use when pipes fill to capacity. This will reduce the likelihood of backups into homes, yards and streets. The division also accelerated completion of a new $37 million pump station at North Creek, which will be on line this August instead of summer 2000. Additionally, work is underway to install a $1.1 million emergency generator to guarantee electricity even during power outages. Pre-design work on a possible emergency bypass at Kenmore has been done. During catastrophic storms this emergency bypass could be used to send sewage out into the water so it wouldn't back up through sinks and toilets into homes or through manholes onto land as happened during the 1997 New Years' storm. Contaminates would be neutralized by wave action and be less of a health risk than that backed up onto streets and into homes. However, successfully weathering this year's record storm season may mean the county will not need to move forward on the emergency bypass at Kenmore at this time. All of these measures, while effective now, are really just partial measures. The long-term solution is Executive Ron Sims' Regional Wastewater Services Plan which would site a new treatment plant in the north end and increase capacity system-wide for transporting and treating sewage. This should dramatically reduce storm-related overflows. King County's wastewater system currently treats 65.7 billion gallons of wastewater per year, which equals an average180 million gallons a day. The division's primary mission is to protect the health of citizens by protecting the water quality in local lakes and Puget Sound from the contaminants found in the sewage. Sending untreated wastewater into local waters is a last resort during extreme emergencies as a way to reduce any public health risk and damage to public and private property. The RWSP, as proposed, will ensure continued high water quality for existing and future customers, which is King County's ultimate goal. For more information, please visit our web page describing the King County Regional Wastewater Services Plan. |
Updated: February 11, 1999