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 from Department of Natural Resources and Parks
Students, community leaders and local elected officials celebrated last week as construction officially began on an environmental education and community center being built as part of the Brightwater Treatment Plant project.
The facility will provide community meeting space that was lost when the Bear Creek Grange Hall was demolished to prepare for Brightwater construction. It will also serve as a resource for local teachers at all grade levels to enhance educational opportunities in science, math and other disciplines.
Non-profit community environmental group Friends of the Hidden River, comprised of local teachers, has played an integral role in shaping plans for the future Brightwater Environmental Education Center. The group to date has secured more than $1 million in grant funding to complete interior finishes and design the facility to LEED (internationally recognized green building certification system) standards.
King County currently takes more than 3,000 students a year on tours of its existing treatment plants in Seattle and Renton.
The tours focus on pollution prevention, treatment technologies, and the creation of resources such as energy, reclaimed water and biosolids from byproducts of the treatment process.
The Environmental Education and Community Center is scheduled to open to the public when Brightwater begins treating wastewater in 2011.
More information about the Brightwater project is available at http://www.kingcounty.gov/brightwater.
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