December 4, 2003

Cities, paper plant team up on pipeline

Photo by Terry Stephens A $25 million pipeline project under way in Everett includes a deep-diffusion wastewater pipeline into Port Gardner Bay south of the alumina dome, to the left. It will connect to Kimberly-Clark's mill, to the right, and sewage lagoons run by Everett and Marysville.

Finding an acceptable way to dispose of millions of gallons of treated wastewater from Everett and Marysville's sewage lagoons and Everett's Kimberly-Clark paper plant has been no easy task, particularly when environmentally-safe solutions come with multimillion-dollar price tags.

But, faced with increasingly stringent federal environmental standards for discharging wastewater, each of the three entities had to come up with a solution for their individual issues.

Finally, six years of planning, designing and negotiating has evolved into an unusual three-way, public-private partnership, a $25 million venture that will provide a common resolve of each one's pollution problems, and save millions of taxpayer and corporate dollars.

The partnership may also become a model for future government-corporate teaming to build community infrastructure to protect the environment.

David Nunnallee, a state Department of Ecology water-quality supervisor, called the plan unique, saying "I don't know of any other (partnership) example (like this) in Washington ... It's kind of a neat deal."

That "neat deal" includes a local pipeline network that will eliminate effluent discharges from Everett and Marysville sewage treatment facilities into the Snohomish River, and Kimberly-Clark's wastewater flows into the inner harbor on Everett's waterfront.

Instead, treated wastewater from all three sources will flow through Kimberly-Clark's new pipeline project that will extend 4,200 feet offshore and 350 feet into the depths of Port Gardner Bay. The cities of Everett and Marysville will split the cost with Kimberly-Clark.

The 54-inch, high-density polyethylene pipeline, which is expected to replace a leaking, 50-year-old wood-stave pipe by next summer, will save Everett and Kimberly-Clark about $10 million each compared to installing separate pipelines.

"The partnership gives us a better project because more people are benefiting from it and it's benefiting more elements of the environment," said Tom Thetford, Everett's public works director. "It takes three outfalls that are now creating problems and replaces them with (a new) one (that benefits the environment)."

The project includes a new 6,600-foot-long, land-based pipeline from the Kimberly-Clark plant to Port Gardner Bay at a point south of the Port of Everett's alumina storage dome, a shallow 1,400-foot-long marine pipeline that will be buried in an inter-tidal zone, and a 2,800-foot-long deep-water diffuser line, held in place at 350-foot depths by large concrete weights.

The mill expects to pour 35 million gallons of wastewater a day through the pipeline, along with another 10 million gallons a day from Everett's treatment plant and 6 million gallons a day from Marysville. The pipeline will enable Marysville's expanded treatment plant to increase to 12 million gallons a day soon, with an option for reaching 20 million gallons in the future, according to city spokesperson Doug Buell.

Marysville officials are relieved to find a compatible solution for their environmental woes. The city is spending $40 million to satisfy Department of Ecology concerns about wastewater effluent discharged from Marysville's sewage treatment facility into the Snohomish River.

Last March, Marysville began making major improvements to the facility's sewage lagoon, installing 256 concrete piles and new treatment cells, catwalks, pumps and aerators. Imco General Construction of Bellingham is building the second phase of construction, including remodeling a control building, adding a maintenance building and improving the treatment facility's filtering system. Last week, Frank Coluccio Construction was awarded a $9.6 million contract to build a 3.7 mile pipeline from Marysville's treatment plant to Everett's plant. (Note: This story has been updated to include Frank Coluccio Construction's role in the project.)

Traveling from the Everett plant, wastewater will flow over the Snohomish River instead of into it, as before, then through the new Kimberly-Clark pipeline into Port Gardner Bay. The pipeline's 105 million gallons-a-day capacity allows considerable room for growth for all three users, city officials said.

Fortunately, Everett will be spared the extreme expense of burying a pipeline link along Everett Avenue, from East Marine View Drive to the Kimberly-Clark plant, because an unused water pipeline under the street can be linked into the new pipeline network.

"This is an old water line that was put in place to supply water to the mill in case its normal water supply from the Rucker Hill reservoir was interrupted. Now we can provide mill water with other resources so the line is open for us to use for this wastewater system," Thetford said.

There are other smaller but notable benefits from the environmental project, plant officials said, such as the use of treated municipal wastewater as a coolant in the paper mill's manufacturing process, eliminating millions of gallons daily that Kimberly-Clark now draws from the city's mountain reservoir.

Also, the outfall project will enable the city to restore a natural beach next to Pigeon Creek No. 1 by removing riprap and old landfill in the area. The Port of Everett will provide a trail and a public access viewpoint next to the restored beach.

The near-shore and deep-water diffuser line was finished in late-October. The land portion of the pipeline should be completed by Jan. 31, 2004. Beach restoration and the viewpoint should be completed before next spring.

By February, Kimberly-Clark should be using the new diffuser pipeline, with Everett beginning use in April and Marysville joining in by next summer.

Overall, the project should benefit regional water quality, fish habitat and economic development, protect wetlands and solve difficult challenges for waste treatment and disposal systems.

Also, the joint partnership strengthens the working relationship between Kimberly-Clark, Everett, Marysville, area residents and regulatory agencies, offering a model for possible future public-private cooperative ventures involving infrastructure and environmental projects.

Previous columns:

• Latest restroom gadget: no-flush urinals, 11-20-2003
• From construction to engineering and back, 11-13-2003
• Tiny Alaskan village has $23M road plan, 11-06-2003
• Ruling on construction claims case will trigger a 'blizzard of paperwork', 10-30-2003
• Milgard shines in booming housing market, 10-16-2003
• From mom to construction exec, 10-09-2003
• Urban density comes to the burbs, 10-02-2003
• Everett awaits events center's economic boost, 09-25-2003