All five of King County’s wastewater treatment plants received 2021 National Association of Clean Water Agency’s (NACWA) Peak Performance Awards, honoring multiple consecutive years of compliance with state and federal effluent permit limits. Special congratulations go to Brightwater for earning its first Platinum award for five years of compliance – and to Vashon for Platinum…
A Brightwater mystery: where is Grandfather’s Wisdom? If you’ve visited the Brightwater Trails area or driven by on Highway 9 past Woodinville recently, you may have noticed that something is missing. A bare metal framework stands where once an iconic longhouse art installation was nestled among flowering trees. Grandfather’s Wisdom brings the history, perspectives, and culture…
There are many names for remotely piloted aircraft, and you may have heard them called drones, but here at the King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD), we refer to them as an RPAS—or a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System. The use of RPASs by the County began about six years ago, but it is only recently…
King County’s Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station (WWTS) earned the coveted “Platinum” designation from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision rating system. This is the first Platinum-awarded Envision project in Washington and recognizes the County’s commitment to sustainable communities and the environment. The Georgetown WWTS project in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood will treat up to 70…
Unless you use a septic system, the water you send down the drain in the City of Carnation travels through pipes owned and maintained by the City of Carnation to King County’s Carnation Treatment Plant. At this plant, we process about 111,000 gallons of wastewater every day. After we treat the water, we release it…
Staff at our King County wastewater treatment plants do an excellent job of cleaning wastewater, but not all types of waste can be filtered out during the treatment process. Our Industrial Waste Program is in charge of preventing pollution from entering the wastewater system in the first place. That’s also where local business can make…
When we are children, we are sometimes told “No potty talk,” but at King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD), we believe in more educational potty talk! Most people don’t think about what happens to all the water that gets flushed down a toilet, goes down a sink, or flows into a storm drain on our…
Operators work hands-on, out at our treatment plants Operators watch over large and complex industrial equipment and the flows going through them – from both on-the-ground and from computer monitoring systems. They check readings and take water samples to make sure things are running smoothly – troubleshooting when necessary. They often work as part of…
City Soil Farm, located at King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) South Plant is a small farm that produces food for the community and demonstrates the benefits of turning wastewater into valuable resources such as recycled water and Class A biosolids. City Soil is a place where the hard work of staff and volunteers means…
We have some of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the country. It takes a decade or more to build large wastewater projects, so it’s important we plan ahead. That’s where our planning staff and programs come in. Recently, we launched a new program for planning around our treatment plants called Treatment Planning. Through this…
How we manage the wastewater as it goes through the treatment plant can enhance the cleaning process and make it more efficient. To do this, operations, maintenance, laboratory, and process staff closely monitor the water we clean as it goes through our treatment plants and can make adjustments. Over the last year and a half,…
King County Wastewater Treatment 