The following a release from King County:

The Washington State Department of Ecology honored King County’s South Treatment Plant with a coveted “Outstanding Performance Award” for operational excellence that resulted in perfect compliance with all permit conditions in 2017.

South Plant is one of 111 wastewater treatment plants out of about 300 statewide that received the recognition. To earn the award, the plant had to operate around the clock for the entire year with no violations of any kind. In addition to meeting or exceeding effluent pollution removal requirements, the plant operations also flawlessly complied with monitoring and reporting obligations, pretreatment requirements, and spill prevention planning.

The plant was also the recipient of the National Association of Clean Water Agency’s “Platinum Peak Performance Award” for 20 consecutive years of perfect compliance with effluent discharge requirements under the federal Clean Water Act and the state’s Water Pollution Control Law.

In service since 1965, King County’s South Treatment Plant in Renton protects public health and water quality for about 700,000 people in communities south and east of Lake Washington. The plant treats an average of 90 million gallons of wastewater each day, with a capacity to treat up to 300 million gallons during severe storms.

The plant site also hosts the award-winning Waterworks Gardens Park, where art, technology and nature join in a unique way. The park’s extensive network of wetlands acts as a natural treatment system to clean stormwater runoff from the plant site. Waterworks Gardens is open to the public year-round from dawn to dusk.

Additional information about the South Treatment Plant is available online.