The fix is to construct a giant sewage treatment plant. Somebody decided “Brightwater” is a good name for it. “Brownwater” got fewer votes, along with “Dirtywater,” “Lifelesswater,” and “Smellywater.” The suggestions were many and the voting was lively. http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Construction/North/Brightwater.aspx
Check the link if you think I’m kidding about the project. I have no idea how they really chose that name. Maybe they think once the water’s cleaned it’ll brighten up Puget Sound. Who knows?
Anyway, the project will be complete long before either the SR 520 Bridge replacement or the Alaska Way Viaduct replacement. That’s because this is a King County project and nobody messes with the King. Those other two are urgent and critical but then what’s more urgent than finally getting to flush?
Here’s the plan in a nutshell in case you don’t have time to read all the double talk on the web page. They take 114 acres that used to be auto wrecking yards and build a giant sewage treatment plant – a long way from Puget Sound. The actual plant only takes about 43 acres and the rest is PC area. Wetlands, habitats, trails, woods, etc. In other words don’t offend anyone. But it used to be auto wrecking yards so how much mitigation do we need?
Another large part of the project is what we call “tunnels.” People don’t normally like their sewage in open canals and they don’t even like big pipes on the surface. So put that stuff underground in very secure pipes.
They hired this tunnel boring machine and hollowed out several miles of dirt. These are lined with concrete to keep dirt from falling back into the tunnel. See in this area we had glaciers many years ago that left large quantities of gravel and loose rock and only a little actual dirt. So don’t look for the material being removed from these tunnels to go into your gardens. Maybe somebody in Maple Valley will wash the rocks and sell them for landscaping. Hang on a sec, I want to make a quick phone call.
OK, I’m back now. No, I can’t make a fortune washing rocks in Maple Valley.
Inside the tunnels they’re building pipelines that will bring the bad water into the plant and then send the bright water out to Puget Sound. Two way tunnels, what a great idea. Basically what they do is de-color the water so the fish won’t be offended. Maybe there’s more to it than that. It’s not my job to understand what goes on in those places. I just don’t know.
What I do understand is that running these pipes inside concrete lined tunnels provides good access. That way if they ever get a leak or somebody wants to add a connection they won’t have to spend all kinds of money digging up the pipes. They just walk into the tunnel, turn a few valves, and take care of the issue. Maybe a couple of hours tops.
Now we have these tunnels done. The boring machine has been hauled out and it’s just sitting there by I-405 not doing anything. What could we do with it? I know! We can move it to Bellevue and dig tunnels for the light rail. Start somewhere on Mercer Island and just keep going down in a general east and north direction. Add a few surface stations along the way so people can lower themselves to the trains. As long as it gets under all the utilities and waterways we should be OK.
Next make sure it gets under downtown Bellevue so that any foundation cracks in those high rise towers can be blamed on Sound Transit. The rest is simple. This eliminates the argument about where to lay the tracks from I-90 to downtown Bellevue.
Even better: Maybe we could start the tunnel over in Seattle. We could have waterproof tubes running about 100 feet below the surface of Lake Washington. The salmon would love it.
That would remove the issue about using the I-90 express lanes too. I don’t know how much I’ll get for this brilliant idea, but it should be a fortune. Don’t worry, I’ll share.
Wait, I got off the subject back there somewhere. Let me see…….. Oh, yeah!
We currently have two other sewage treatment plants operating in King County. One is on the shore of Puget Sound not too far north of downtown Seattle. That gives it direct access to send the “bright” water way out into the sound. The other one is located in Renton. That’s right, Renton. No surprise there. It dumps into the Green River which becomes the Duwamish right about the same place. What a coincidence.
The Duwamish River meanders through mostly industrial area on its way to Elliott Bay and then into Puget Sound. It gets mixed with the salt water.
Once Brightwater is on line it’ll also be releasing into Puget Sound. We have pods of killer whales out there and if the water isn’t bright enough they’ll be annoyed. They’re not called “killer whales” because of their cheerful smiles. The state runs ferry boats full of tasty people back and forth across Puget Sound. We don’t want the killer whales annoyed so rest assured these three plants will only let clean bright water out there. What could possibly go wrong? I wonder if we could get a cable stay bridge out if this somehow.
Al
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