Aerospace manufacturer thinks globally but acts locally to protect Puget Sound waters

An employee of Skills Inc., sprays down holding tanks used in the production of aerospace parts.

To those who pass by, Skills Inc. may seem like just another grey building tucked behind Auburn’s mile-long dealership row. Inside, the company is quietly making its mark contributing to western Washington’s cluster of innovation in commercial aerospace.

The work of manufacturing and finishing wings, landing gear, side panels, and other aerospace parts involves the use of heavy metals and caustic chemicals. While Skills Inc.’s finished products end up all over the world, the company has a responsibility locally to keep Puget Sound and its surrounding waters clean. King County Wastewater Treatment’s Industrial Waste Program makes sure that happens.

“A lot of wastewater comes from local industries,” says Dana Heinz, a King County industrial waste compliance investigator. “And we closely work with King County’s many industrial users like Skills Inc. to make sure that harmful pollutants to our treatment system are not discharged to the sanitary sewer.”

Heinz is part of a 19-person team that regulates over 650 industrial users of the regional wastewater system to make sure WTD’s workers, our regional wastewater system and the local waterbodies are protected. Skills Inc. has been an exceptionally good player, going as far as building a wastewater treatment system for their production line.

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In 2024, Industrial Waste awarded Skills Inc. a Commitment to Compliance award for achieving five consecutive years of perfect permit compliance, making them just one of five companies to receive the award for calendar year 2023.

Beyond protecting local waters, the company is a registered non-profit that contributes to the local economy and makes a social impact with its inclusive hiring practices. More than 60% of staff have a self-reported disability.

“Our process allows us to clean water right onsite and to reuse it multiple times,” says Dave White a chemical maintenance supervisor at Skills Inc. White’s team tests and treats the 90,000-gallons of water used by the factory monthly.  

Skills Inc.’s 95,000-square foot factory can feel like a maze with workers transporting finished metal parts past chemical tanks and brightly used for processing and finishing. Amongst all of it, is a wastewater treatment system integrated into the factory’s operations.

“Wastewater from our factory goes through a series of pretreatment processes before being discharged,” says White, while standing next to a series of long pipe-like filters along one of their production lines. “You have to know where to look, but parts of our pretreatment processes can be found throughout the factory, like the ionic system we have on this production line, which allows us to continuously press sludge out of used water

Some of the tanks along the floor are filled with crystal-clear water; others hold a muddy brown liquid that after multiple uses is moved through a series of cleaning systems before entering a row of large tanks where it undergoes final treatment.

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“We’re able to filter out the metals and impurities in our used water and turn it into a solid product that we call filter cake,” says White.

Metals and other impurities are removed as they settle out of the water as it slowly moves through a series of giant tanks that line the outside of the factory.

“We mix in emulsifiers to help thicken the material up,” says White, lifting up a shovel full of filter cake. “We’re able to send the filter cake offsite for further processing and proper disposal, keeping it out of the sewer lines, and in turn, out of Puget Sound.”

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“Each industrial user has its own unique wastewater challenges and their own pre-treatment processes,” says Heinz, who has been inspecting Skills Inc. for over 10 years. “The best way to be a good regulator is to learn and understand everything industries in King County do. We ask the hard questions and do tons of research on each industry we regulate.”

Aerospace manufacturers, food processors, pharmaceutical companies, and breweries – they’re all on Heinz’s inspection list. “We’re always learning a lot,” she says, “And it feels great to know that our feedback is helping industries better their processes to keep Puget Sound clean.”