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Dive brief:
- Washington’s King County plans to invest $10 billion in wastewater treatment and other resilience measures in the next decade to reduce pollution in waterways and prepare for storms, which are likely to become more frequent and intense due to climate change.
- Plans for the sewage treatment division received a major boost on March 28 when the The EPA announced a $194 million loan to support critical wastewater infrastructure upgrades. It’s the first installment of a nearly $500 million low-interest loan package aimed at making the system more reliable and protecting Puget Sound.
- The new funding will help replace raw sewage pumps and provide seismic upgrades for the administration building at Seattle’s West Point treatment plant. The installation treats millions of gallons of wastewater each day and receives sewage and stormwater from Seattle, Shoreline, North Lake Washington, areas of northern King County and parts of southern Snohomish County, according to the Seattle Times.
Diving knowledge:
The $500 million loan package is expected to help the county complete 14 critical infrastructure improvements, including seismic upgrades to two regional wastewater treatment plants, improvements to the recycled water system and improvements to of transport and sewer pipes.
These 14 projects include:
Funding for the loan comes from the federal Water Infrastructure Innovation and Financing Act of 2014, which aims to accelerate investment by providing long-term, low-cost credit assistance for projects of regional and national importance . The King County Wastewater Treatment Division was the first entity to receive a WIFIA loan in 2018.
“EPA’s WIFIA loans have a track record of success, and nowhere is that more evident than here in King County, where two loans have already reduced the amounts of untreated sewage and stormwater entering local waterways EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Water Bruno Pigott said in the release.
Reinforcement of waste water infrastructures
The King County Wastewater Treatment Division has advanced dozens of capital projects over the past five years. Before remediation work began at the West Point plant, about 30 billion gallons of combined wastewater and stormwater would overflow into Puget Sound every year, according to the Seattle Times; now it’s about 1 billion gallons.
In addition, several system failures during a The 2017 storm caused significant flooding at the facility and resulted in about 244 million gallons of untreated or partially discharged sewage into the Sound. This pollution degrades water quality and affects marine animals and the people who depend on them for subsistence and commercial fishing.
Water infrastructure is a booming business across the country. From massive rainwater tunnels, like Washington, DC’s ongoing $2.7 billion system; a seawalls, surge barriers and tidal gates such as those underway in Norfolk, Virginia; to the correction of PFAS, major contractors including AECOMiron, Jacobs i WSP are putting more emphasis water work
The sector has also received a lift from the Federal Employment and Infrastructure Investment Act, which contains $50 billion for EPA to improve drinking water, wastewater and rainwater infrastructures. It marks the federal government’s largest investment in water.
