12 million could pay for alot of things. Parks, libraries, Medic 1, etc....

What is it that our government is supposed to provide?


By Keith Ervin

Seattle Times reporter

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MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Progress is slow — 30 to 50 feet a day — on the deep, 13-mile-long tunnel that will carry treated wastewater to Puget Sound from the Brightwater plant.
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Monthly sewer fees on the rise (PDF)
Gallery | Brightwater under construction
How Brightwater got so expensive (PDF)
Where it comes from, where it goes (PDF)
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When King County officials authorized a third sewage-treatment plant, they knew it wasn't the cheapest way to handle the region's growing volume of sewage.

Little did they know how expensive it would become.

The Brightwater treatment plant is now expected to cost $1.8 billion — roughly double what the Metropolitan King County Council was told when it first approved the project.

Officials don't know of a plant this size anywhere that has cost so much.
The soaring price of the most expensive public-works project in county history means higher sewer bills for everyone. Buyers of new single-family homes in most of King County and parts of Snohomish County are paying the most — on average, more than $1,000 this year.

A falloff in homebuilding and new bond-insurance requirements could push rates higher still. King County Executive Ron Sims will introduce his 2009 rate proposal and forecast of future rates next month.

In all, it will take 35 to 40 years of principal and interest payments to retire the $3 billion debt burden on Brightwater, scheduled to open in 2011 in Snohomish County north of Woodinville.

How did Brightwater get so pricey?

There are many reasons: engineering changes, technology that exceeds state and federal environmental requirements, and construction-industry inflation among them.

But above all was the simple truth that almost nobody wants a sewer plant near his home or business or beach.

That reality pushed the plant so far inland that a 13-mile, $735 million pipeline is being built to take treated waste to Puget Sound. It also meant installing the nation's most advanced odor-control system and paying for parks and other goodies to win at least grudging acceptance from jurisdictions near the plant and pipeline.

A 43-acre habitat-restoration area overlooks the site, where massive concrete structures are rising from the hillside. Sewer bills will also pay $4 million for artwork and $8 million for an education center.

Stuff like this makes people a bit aprehensive about just nodding their head and voting for whatever it is that THEY say we "need." I must not be as smart as those who dictate policy in our region.

The SLUT? CAO? Really?

Looks like one of the big cost factors is the NIMBY element. I take that to mean that the public is willing to pay more not to have the plant in their back yard.

Or, the council is more willing to find an area that is less likely to spend huge dollars on many lawsuits. That does benefit the taxpayer but also speaks to where we are as a society.

What about the 4 million for the arts and 8 million for an education center? Those $$ could fund quite a few officers, Medic 1, schools.....?


Salmo, nice to see you finally caught a fish.

Finally? Check out the fiberglass rod. 4/30/82. Happened to have a camera that day, and it was warm and sunny.

That was shoved down the throats of Snohomish County who had zero say.