King County is committed to protecting water quality and reducing harm to fish and aquatic life in Puget Sound’s shallow bays caused by human sources of nitrogen. The Department of Natural Resources and Parks supports a science-based approach that capitalizes on innovation and technology and focuses public resources where they can make a real difference.…
King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) is being recognized for its commitment to sustainable communities and the environment. WTD’s Sunset / Heathfield Pump Stations and force main upgrade project was awarded an Envision® Silver Award this month for project sustainability. This is the second Envision-certified project for the region’s wastewater utility. In 2018, King County’s…
The West Point Treatment Plant processes about 100 million gallons of wastewater each day, and up to 440 million gallons during heavy rains. While the plant’s operators are working hard to keep the treatment process flowing smoothly, a momentary lapse of power supply quality can bring vital equipment operations to a hard stop. That’s why in February 2021, King County Executive Dow Constantine signed an emergency declaration and the King County Council authorized up to $65 million to provide West Point with more reliable power. The team…
Our employees plan, design, build, and operate treatment facilities to clean wastewater for the region. Planning and building new wastewater infrastructure is complex. It can easily take a decade or more to go from identifying a project is needed, to cutting the ribbon on a newly completed facility. Each project goes through several phases of…
Wastewater treatment workers are essential frontline workers you may not have immediately thought about during the pandemic. Like other critical government workers, they can’t do their jobs from home, so during 2020 they had to adjust many of the ways they worked in order to protect their own health and prevent the spread of the…
What is happening A nationwide shortage of sodium hypochlorite – a chlorine compound and disinfectant in common household bleach and the primary disinfectant in our wastewater treatment process – triggered by a supply-chain disruption, is impacting wastewater treatment operations throughout the Northwest, including King County. Like several other utilities in the region, our staff is conserving the disinfectant while we try to…
It’s important to us that our wastewater facilities to be a good neighbor to the people who live, work and play near them. Part of being a good neighbor means that we work hard to control odors / smells that come from the wastewater treatment process—which can get gassy! Why does sewage smell? Treating dirty water at…
Built in 1966, West Point Treatment Plant is the largest wastewater treatment plant by volume in Washington state, and the third largest by average daily flow on the West Coast. Like much of the King County wastewater system, it’s more than 55 years old and many of its components reach their “end of life” each…
Power disruptions during heavy rainfall As a clean water agency, our mission is to protect public health and the environment. We work 24/7 to serve over 1.8 million residents and clean about 190 million gallons of water per day. Even in massive rainstorms that generate more volume than the system can handle, we feel any…
Our business is unconventional – and that works for a lot of our employees We get it. Any of us who work here at King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) have been asked what we do for a living – and we’ve seen the smirks and heard the giggles when we explain we help run…
King County Wastewater Treatment 