The Brightwater treatment plant east of Seattle as it appeared last year before it opened. A year later, the facility's first discharges are entering Puget Sound.
credit:
Katie Campbell
Brightwater on King County’s Eastside is now treating the region’s wastewater with its $1.8 billion, state-of-the-art facility.
The county says the plant near Woodinville started discharging into Puget Sound last week through a 13-mile tunnel to Edmonds, according to the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. The publication also reports that the plant uses technology that cleans the wastewater enough to use it for some industrial processes and irrigation. The Willows Run Golf Course in Redmond plans to use the water next summer.
We reported on the plant last year when it was still being constructed and when it opened.
But with the first discharges finally reaching Puget Sound, we thought this was a good time for a virtual revisit to the plant as it appeared in 2011 before it opened:
(Audio by Ashley Ahearn. Photos by Katie Campbell.)
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