King County tries to clear air about sewage plant

by Jeanette Knutson
Staff Writer

The Trio

Christie True, Brightwater project manager; Stan Hummel, project engineering manager; and Jay Witherspoon, CH2M Hill go-to odor guy, played to a tough audience Jan. 13: the Woodinville City Council and about 75 extremely interested citizens.

The evening’s topic was odor-control methods proposed for the 106-acre Route 9 sewage treatment plant, should King County Executive Ron Sims decide to place it there.

True briefly spoke about Metropolitan King County Council’s Regional Water Quality Committee’s request for Brightwater-project cost reductions. The King County Council is considering raising the capacity charge for new sewage customers from $17.50 a month to as much as $46.50 a month. The fee will be charged for 15 years and the money used to pay for Metro’s sewage-related capital projects, such as the Brightwater plant.

“The Council is interested in minimizing impacts to customers,” said True. “I assure you, we are still committed to the Brightwater project.”

In a phone interview after the meeting, True said, “We will not be going back on promises or compromising the quality of the project with respect to odor control, mitigation or aesthetics There is a full range of things to do to cut costs.”

She also said King County finds the citizen-proposed concept of posting a bond to assure that if odor control doesn’t work, money will be available to upgrade the system.

“We think it’s a very intriguing idea and would like to pursue it,” said True. “We have a lot of confidence in our system.”

Hummel said engineers are placing a lot of emphasis on air stream and odor control. “Success of the project will be measured by odor elimination,” said Hummel.

He said, “We are evaluating various technologies and we are moving forward with (our design plan.)”

Hummel said experts are seriously considering using the newest membrane technology to yield a cleaner effluent. Planners are now recommending all process tanks be covered, including secondary clarifiers. They are also considering using three-stage chemical scrubbers, instead of the microbiological system proposed months ago.
Witherspoon claims the Brightwater plant will have the best odor control in the United States. It will have the most stringent odor threshold seen in North America, many times lower than peer treatment plants. Odors will be kept at non-detectable levels, he said. Furthermore, the plant will be designed to handle peak or worst-case operating scenarios. To that, he said, they will add a safety factor of three.

The Quartet

Woodinville City Council member Cathy Wiederhold said after the meeting that she had reservations about the sewage plant.

I’m still concerned,” said Wiederhold. “I was encouraged to hear about the new technology, but (King County) still has a lot of work to do on the EIS.”

Mayor Scott Hageman said after the meeting, “I feel better having heard the presentation. Now we have more information, and (the Council’s) goal all along has been to get more information. I am not entirely convinced (the county) has the wherewithal to do all they have planned. I like the concept of a bond. (Brightwater staff) has a lot of work to do yet.”

Councilmember Gareth Grube, who is an engineer in the sewage treatment industry, said after the meeting, “They started with sizing the plant to a worst-case scenario. They’ve used a maximum set of conditions that probably won’t occur, maximum flow on a worst inversion day. Then they applied a safety factor of three, eliminated the ‘bio’ system, and included redundancy. And they still have the ‘flare’ option.

“I asked myself, what was the point of the bond, if they had already used the best technology to build the plant? What would be left to do if the plant emitted odors? That’s why I asked (Witherspoon at the council meeting) what experts had as a last resort. Witherspoon said, ‘A final treatment would be thermal destruction by flare.’”

Grube said he sent some Brightwater facts to a colleague in Portland.

After looking over the data, this person told him, “They have more odor control than anybody else has.”

“This (plant),” said Grube, “has been designed from the ground up to handle odor problems.”

City Manager Pete Rose remarked after the council meeting, “I don’t know if they got us all the way there in their presentation. I sent the Brightwater folks an e-mail on Tuesday that said, ‘Help us understand how Paine Field (meteorological data) can correlate to the Route 9 site.’

“I think the levels they are promising to treat (the air) to are promising.

“I wondered if the ambient air plus the released air was cumulative. They didn’t make that clear.

“It bothered us, the apparent illogic, that if the nose can detect odor at .8 (parts per billion), why odors released at the fence line (of the plant) would be at a higher level.

“And we wonder why Renton smells, what they know now, that they didn’t know then,” said Rose.

Grube addressed Rose’s Renton question.

“The Renton plant was built with 40-year-old technology,” said Grube. “It was laid out when odor was not an issue. In those days, we tried to isolate a plant from people. I’m almost positive there was no ‘odor modeling’ done back then. It’s not a fair comparison. In those days, no one cared (about the odor).”

The Choir

The public had plenty to say in response to the Brightwater presentation.

There was talk of DEIS deficiencies.

“The DEIS is fraught with inaccuracies,” said Tony Niolu. “You quote parts per million in the DEIS and parts per billion tonight.

“You introduced a lot of new technical information that was not mentioned in the DEIS.” Niolu said.

Linda Gray said, “The only thing we have that is firm is the DEIS, and that (didn’t tell us much).”

Clayton Fleming called it “... a sloppily-put-together document.” He said, “Look at the errors and omissions.”

Several complained about insufficient and/or inappropriate meteorological data used in the DEIS.

“Are we trying to find a place that has the most challenging air shed?” asked one woman.

“Paine Field is in no way a surrogate for the Route 9 site,” said Jim McCrae.

Gray contends that Brightwater staff took data at the Route 9 site for four months, not six, as Witherspoon had said.

“Four months of (weather) sampling,” said Niolu, “is inadequate. What you saw was the fluke of that four-month period, nothing more.”

Gray said, “Data from Route 9 was not even used in the DEIS.”

Larry Whalen lives a half-mile from the prospective Route 9 site. He works at Paine Field.

“I guarantee the (weather at the) Paine Field site is not the same as the (weather at the) Route 9 site,” said Whalen. “I’m at both sites every day. It bothers me that what you told us is not true.”

Two people mentioned that the Renton sewage plant meets current standards - and it still smells.

More than one worried about trucks hauling smelly solid waste out of town.

To this Stan Hummel said, “The trucks will be loaded in an enclosed facility, and we’re considering putting portable air scrubbers on the trucks.”

Susan Lease said she was bewildered that King County was willing to post a bond, particularly in these tight economic times when the county is closing parks, pools, courts and curtailing other services.

Rondi Olson said Brightwater planners were anxious to meet the 2010 project deadline because stricter federal regulations that would require costly compliance by the county were set to kick-in shortly after 2010.

She and others were concerned about contamination of the Cross Valley Sole Source Aquifer, which lay beneath the proposed Route 9 site.

Hummel offered to present a separate forum about the aquifer at a later date.

Olson said she was also concerned about surrounding communities’ ability to handle a catastrophe. She is worried about insufficient road capacity in the area.

Virginia Smith said she was concerned about Little Bear Creek, particularly if there were some sort of accident and spillage went into the creek.

“We have a lot of salmon,” said Smith, “65 to 85 constantly spawning. What happens to the fish if there is a spill? They have to have (good, clean) water.”

Hummel said the protection of Little Bear Creek was very important. He said their design would reflect their desire not to have any impact on the creek.

Speakers shared many other complaints about the would-be Route 9 sewer plant.

Don Fleming ended the public comment period by asking the Woodinville City Council to draft a letter of no confidence, based on the lack of data in the DEIS.