File photo/Ian Gleadle
The suspected area was trenched to expose vertical walls which could be studied.

Brightwater

Appeals: In January, three cities and two other entities filed statements of appeal challenging the adequacy of the Brightwater sewage treatment plant Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

The appellants were the cities of Woodinville, Bothell and Shoreline; StockPot Inc. along with its parent company Campbell Soup Company of New Jersey; and Sno-King Environmental Alliance (SKEA), a local watchdog group opposed to the State-Route-9 siting of the plant.

Snohomish County filed a notice of appeal in early December, but on Jan. 20, the Snohomish County Council voted 3 to 1 to drop its appeal. And, over the course of several months, the remaining appellants dropped their litigation against King County, all except one: SKEA.

Those who dropped appeals worked with the county to resolve issues of concern.

Woodinville agreement: Since the King-County proposed sewage is to be located on 114 acres about a half mile from Woodinville city limits and about two miles from the city’s central business district, Woodinville officials wanted to be certain city residents and city resources were protected from potential adverse impacts of the plant, impacts not spelled out in the project’s FEIS. Concerns prompted the city to initiate the appeal process.

In April, however, the Woodinville City Council voted unanimously to drop its appeal.

The city, instead, struck an agreement with King County that addressed its concerns.

Particularly troublesome for city officials was the fact that the City of Woodinville was not a permit-issuing agency for the project. From the very beginning, the city sought that proverbial “seat at the table” that would afford them, at the very least, the chance to review and comment on Brightwater permits and design.

Though the city has not been granted permitting-agency status with approval authority at the site, King County will allow the city an opportunity to review and comment on all preliminary design drawings for the Conditional Use Permit application to Snohomish County. Woodinville’s input is advisory, not binding. King County also commits to involving Woodinville in mitigation discussions related to the plant site. King County will reimburse the city for staff time required to review the design and permit submittals and for staff involvement required for public meetings.

In the agreement, King County also reaffirmed its commitment to no detectable odors at the property line of the plant 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

They also agreed to establish an Odor Reserve Fund to be used to upgrade the odor system should it not meet the standard of “no detectable odors at the property line.” King County will establish a peer review panel to determine the dollar amount of the fund and a reasonable period of time for holding the amount in reserve.

The agreement allows the city to be involved in planning the construction traffic routes as well as how routes are handled during an emergency situation.

It also addresses truck routes once the plant is operational.

SKEA appeal: SKEA hired world-renowned expert known for earthquake hazard evaluation Robert S. Yeats, Ph.D., to help review the seismic studies presented in the project FEIS. The group contended Yeats’ findings, in conjunction with recent USGS (United States Geological Survey) findings and LIDAR imagery, “produce substantial evidence which has not been fully investigated that the Route 9 treatment plant site lies within the projection of the South Whidbey Island Fault.” The group called for extensive geotechnical and geological investigations to locate every strand of the fault system within the project area, determine the degree of activity of each fault strand, and propose adequate mitigation measures to prevent rupture of the pipeline and destruction of the plant facilities.

Second addendum: According to the April 2 addendum, a new temporary construction access road would be built at the southern end of the plant site, at the State Route-9 / State Route-522 westbound ramp intersection. It would be located opposite the existing westbound SR-522 interchange ramp and would be restricted to Brightwater construction traffic and possibly SR-9 construction traffic.

The addendum also identified the five portal locations needed for tunnel construction for the conveyance system or pipeline: near Point Wells Road and 205th Street Northwest west of Woodway; Ballinger Way Northeast and 19th Avenue Northeast in Shoreline; Northeast Bothell Way and Juanita Drive Northeast in Kenmore; Northeast 195th Street and 80th Avenue Northeast in Kenmore; and North Creek Parkway and Northeast 195th Street in Bothell.

Mitigation: Brightwater officials have said for years that the proposed Brightwater wastewater treatment system would be a good neighbor.

The Upper Bear Creek Community Council (UBCCC) wanted a say in where the promised 80-plus million mitigation dollars would be spent to compensate for the adverse impacts caused by construction and operation of the sewage plant. After all, this industrial complex is going to be imbedded in the Northshore community, a high resource area worthy of protection, restoration and preservation, said UBCCC President Geoff Clayton.

The group invited Michael Popiwny, architectural design and mitigation manager for King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division, to an April meeting to discuss proposed mitigation projects. Popiwny could commit to nothing, saying Brightwater officials have heard mitigation requests for the last several years.

According to Popiwny, the permitting agencies and jurisdictions are the ones that have traction. They issue permits with mitigation requirements attached. Organizations and jurisdictions such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Snohomish County, Bothell, Kenmore, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Woodway, Woodinville (street-use permits), and the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad et al. will have their mitigation requests met for the exact impacts to their area.

Another addendum: Addendum 3 contained new seismic and geological information pertaining to the siting, construction and operation of the Brightwater facilities. County officials said the findings did not substantially change the analysis done in the original November 2003 final EIS.

Analysis indicated the Route 9 treatment plant site met the recommended 0.5-kilometer separation from a documented fault, since the South Whidbey Island Fault (SWIF) probably runs from between 5 and 8 kilometers from the site.

Land formations in the plant-site area point to something called the “Cottage Lake lineament,” which does fall between 1 and 2 kilometers of the site, actually crossing the northeast corner of the plant site footprint. The addendum stated that USGS data suggests the lineament has not been confirmed as a fault or as an active fault.

Brightwater officials said, based on USGS findings, should it be found to be an active fault, it does not extend beneath any planned new buildings or structures of the treatment plant, though it may be located near the northeast corner of the existing StockPot building.

By adhering to the requirements of the International Building Code, the county said the plant site would be designed for ground motions that are consistent with the SWIF near the plant site.

Appeal hearing: On July 14, James O’Connor, King County Hearing Examiner pro tem, listened to testimony in the SKEA appeal of the King County-produced Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Brightwater sewage plant project.

Lawyer Jennifer Dold for SKEA said the county’s FEIS was based on inadequate information. Seismic information was missing, she said. There was no information about the location of strands of the SWIF that run near and through the proposed plant site. There was no analysis of whether the fault strands were active and no analysis of surface rupture on the Route 9 site.

The county tried to “paper-over” the inadequacy of the FEIS by releasing new information in the form of addenda, she said.

The problem with the addenda, Dold maintained, is there were no draft documents provided to the public and other agencies for review. There were no public-comment periods. There was no requirement of the county to respond to comments, nor need for the County Executive to consider the information. The parade of new information generated by King County after the FEIS was released proves the FEIS was inadequate, she said.

Patrick Mullaney, attorney for King County, said King County witnesses would support the adequacy of the FEIS. He said environmental-impact statements require “a reasonably thorough discussion of probable significant adverse impacts.” They do not require an exhaustive level of detail. They do not need to be a compendium of probabilities, he said.

“SKEA information must be kept in perspective,” said Mullaney. “It is only relevant if it extends to a probable significant adverse impact.”

The county believes there is an extremely remote likelihood of the Brightwater plant or its conveyance being impacted by seismic rupture. He said the only earthquake related to the SWIF occurred 3,000 years ago. Even if it did occur, the nature and effects of its impacts are not known, he said.

To address the “ongoing parade of new information” comment made by SKEA’s lawyer, Mullaney said, “The project will go through many levels of study. Testing and analysis are ongoing.”

SKEA’s witness Dr. Yeats has been a practicing earthquake geologist for over 30 years and author of more than 135 papers in the field of geology, including the standard textbook in earthquake geology used worldwide. He said that faults could be tens of meters wide. They are not necessarily laser-thin lines. Faults can have strands that shoot off in other directions. The way to determine if a geological feature is a fault, whether or not it is active or whether or not it has faults that branch out from it is to trench the suspected area with a backhoe or bulldozer to expose vertical walls, which could then be studied.

Yeats said, “Trenching is not an academic exercise but part of what we do to insure the safety of a large project.”

King County, on the other hand, told the hearing examiner that the FEIS adequately explained the seismic risks to the Brightwater plant site and pipeline. The county maintained there is a low probability of seismic risk. They have over 320 miles of underground pipes and tunnels, none of which has been seriously damaged in the past 50 years, despite several large earthquakes. They said risks can be avoided or the facilities can be designed to accommodate them.

The county said it responsibly published new seismic information when it was brought to their attention. Based on the new information, they have upgraded the seismic design of the plant. They ask that the adequacy of the FEIS be upheld.

Appeal decision: On Aug. 3, Hearing Examiner O’Connor ruled that the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Brightwater sewage system was adequate as published on Nov. 19, 2003.

The examiner stated in his decision synopsis, “In March 2004, King County received additional information from the United States Geologic Survey concerning the possible location of a strand of a major earthquake fault on the Route 9 site.

“The availability of that new information requires additional environmental investigation and analysis prior to the use of the FEIS for future governmental actions concerning permitting and construction of the proposed wastewater treatment plant on the Route 9 site.

“The additional information should be provided to government agencies with jurisdiction and to the public as either an addendum or as a supplement to the FEIS, based on what the new information shows.”

The county was required to trench the potential fault.

Reactions to appeal decision: King County Executive Ron Sims called the appeal decision “a tremendous milestone in the long planning process to build the needed sewage treatment capacity for south Snohomish County and north King County.”

SKEA considered the decision “good news and not-so-good news,” according to SKEA member Glen Jones. The not-so-good news was that the group’s appeal regarding the adequacy of the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was denied. The good news was that the decision was subject to conditions; namely, King County must trench the site to investigate a suspected fault and must publish its findings, Jones said.

Despite what may have appeared to be an acceptance of the hearing examiner’s decision on the part of King County and SKEA, both parties appealed the Aug. 3 decision. The appeal hearing is set for March 28, 2005.

Trenching: “The folding is consistent with an active fault that runs through this part of the world from Whidbey Island to the Snoqualmie Valley,” said Craig Weaver, Pacific Northwest coordinator for the USGS national earthquake program.

Weaver’s statement was a preliminary appraisal based on visual examination of a newly dug trench meant to enable geologists and seismologists to gather field evidence to better assess seismic risk to the area in general, to the proposed Brightwater sewage treatment plant in particular.

The excavation ran along the middle of a geological feature known as Lineament 4, which is located off State Route 9 just northeast of the former Opus building, now part of the sewage plant’s 114-acre campus, in south Snohomish County. The lineament extends through the northeast corner of the StockPot soup building, also on the plant site.

Though the fault line cuts through the northern part of the proposed plant site, county officials do not believe it will jeopardize the overall Brightwater project. They will, said Christie True, a Brightwater project manager, use the latest and best information attained from this study to enhance the plant’s structural design. Contractors have already designed the plant as if a fault existed, setting back plant facilities 620 feet from the fault zone, she said.

The county’s original siting criteria, however, called for a 1,640-foot (.5 km) separation of a plant site from a documented fault.

SKEA questioned whether an essential public facility such as a sewage treatment plant should be built near an earthquake fault. Other potential treatment plant sites were eliminated from consideration because of proximity to a fault. They believe this site should be eliminated too.

Costs: With only about 30 percent of overall design of the Brightwater sewage treatment system complete, Brightwater officials released new cost estimates. According to their report, the planning-level cost estimate, prepared in 2001 and presented in the Final Environmental Impact Statement of November 2003, was $1.35 billion. The revised cost estimate is $1.48 billion.

County to issue a Supplemental EIS: On Dec. 21, Brightwater officials announced they would issue a Supplemental EIS in late February or early March. It would focus on the fault on the north end of the Route-9 plant site. This document, said Christie True, would be in answer to the hearing examiner’s August appeal decision.

There will be a public comment period once the draft document is published. The county will respond to public comments and then issue a final Supplemental EIS, probably in May, True said.

True acknowledged there is yet another lineament on the south end of the Route 9 site. It may run parallel to the fault line discovered in fall. She said this lineament is a weaker feature than Lineament 4. She said it was difficult to detect because junk cars in the area interfered with the LIDAR imaging.

“We probably will not study it,” said True. “We will assume it is active and act accordingly.”

SKEA believes the new lineament should be trenched. They feel it could impact where facilities can be sited or whether the Route-9 site is appropriate at all.

SKEA member Linda Gray said, “Assuming it is active isn’t enough. The only way they can truly identify where it goes and where the branching is, is by trenching.”

Dr. Yeats, retained by SKEA, said upon hearing about the Supplemental EIS, “I wish we could get them to take seriously the problems of lineaments along the conveyance route. There are at least two, and I feel that these both have the potential to be active faults. I wonder what this means for King County getting catastrophe insurance for this project.”

True said conveyance tunnels generally hold up very well during earthquakes. They are so deep they tend to move when the earth moves. Should a pipe be damaged by a quake, she said, the system would kick into its emergency protocols, which would shut down the flows. She also said there is no way to avoid the pipeline crossing lineaments in the Pacific Northwest. The USGS Open File Report 2004 mentioned a lineament along Ballinger Way. True said she did not know whether the Supplemental EIS would deal with that particular lineament.