County Council approves WaterWorks project grants

July 25, 2016

Summary

Funds for water quality improvement projects

Story

The Metropolitan King County Council gave its unanimous approval for awarding grant funding for projects through the King County WaterWorks program. Funding can be used by non-profits, local governments, and schools for projects to benefit water quality throughout the region.

“The WaterWorks program funds projects that do vital work to restore, clean, and protect our local waters,” said Council Vice Chair Rod Dembowski, chair of the Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee. “I am especially pleased about the major investment in our partnership with Seattle Public Utilities to detect and eradicate human fecal coliform bacteria from our urban streams and lakes.”

The $850,000 in funds comes from the use of up to one and a half percent of the Wastewater Treatment Division’s (WTD) annual operating revenues for the purpose of “water quality improvement activities, programs and projects”. The programs that were awarded funding were chosen through a grant application review process and had to meet specified criteria to be eligible, including:

• Create a benefit to or improvement of water quality within the County’s Wastewater Treatment Division’s (WTD) service area and benefit its ratepayers; and
• Demonstrate that water quality benefits are related to WTD’s regional water quality responsibilities.

The 11 grant recipients are:

• City of Seattle, Seattle Public Utilities: $250,000 for "Implementing In-Stream
Methodology for Detecting Sewage in-flows to Receiving Waters";
• The King County Water and Land Resources Division: $154,986 for "Duwamish
Floating Wetlands."
• Nature Vision: $24,949 for "Water Quality Education Project”
• Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery: $30,000 for "FISH Volunteer
Recruitment Support”
• Futurewise: $81,565 for "Stormwater Pollution Reduction Project for Algona"
• Stewardship Partners: $75,000 for "Green Stormwater Infrastructure Mini Grants,
RainWise Access Grants and Community Engagement Campaign"
• West Woodland Elementary School PTA, School Gardens Committee: $15,000 for
"Rain Garden Restoration - Built to Last"
• City of Kent - $100,000 for "Leber Homestead: Arsenic Remediation"
• Seattle Tilth Association: $50,000 for "Improving Water Quality through Changes
to Agriculture Practices"
• Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust: $50,000 for "Me-Kwa-Mooks Parks
Community Engagement and Restoration"
• Cascadia College: $18,500 for "Student Led Solutions to Stormwater Pollution"