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Adding Green to the Mix: Wastewater Facility Construction Uses Recycled Materials
One of the core components of the President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 is to encourage green building practices as part of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. State and local governments receiving ARRA funding for new infrastructure design and construction or repairs of existing infrastructure should seek opportunities to incorporate sustainable design and construction principles into projects. Although the construction project featured in this article is not an official ARRA project, this project illustrates the core principles in the ARRA.
Constructing sustainable communities for a clean and natural environment is exactly what the Department of Natural Resources and Parks in King County, Washington, is doing with the design and construction of King County’s clean-water facilities. Through its Green Building Initiative 
, the county has made sustainable building and design principles standard practice in the county's capital projects.
One of King County’s latest capital construction projects is the Brightwater Treatment System, a wastewater facility that incorporates sustainable design and building practices in all facets of its construction and operation. This project is an excellent example of the county’s dedication to sustainability. The 1.8 billion dollar project, partly funded through the Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund, is the county’s largest clean-water capital project in 40 years, and will meet growing service demands of the Puget Sound region over several decades.
And what makes the Brightwater Wastewater Treatment System construction green? Over 13 thousand tons of fly ash, a byproduct of burned coal that would otherwise have gone to waste, is added to the concrete mix as a cement substitute. Not only does the fly ash make the concrete stronger, the reuse of the material requires less cement to be used or produced, thus resulting in the avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to annual emissions of 2,297 passenger vehicles.
Soil excavated during construction is reused on site to create landforms to obscure wastewater processing areas, and the trees and root wads cleared from the site have been reused to build a salmon habitat restoration area. To date, 67% of all the construction and demolition materials from the construction project has been diverted from landfilling.
From the beginning of the project, King County and the Brightwater Team, including its architects, engineers, and contractors, focused the construction planning on protecting natural resources and limiting the environmental impact. The team incorporated sustainable practices throughout the planning process, from drafting the Environmental Impact Statement and designing the facility, to the start of construction. The Team’s success was due, in large part, to early and continued collaboration with environmental and transportation authorities in the design process. Such coordination helped the Team to minimize confusion and to obtain accurate and appropriate information in a timely manner.
The Brightwater Wastewater Treatment System will treat 36 million gallons of wastewater per day on average using membrane bioreactor technology. Thirteen miles of pipes and pumps stretch underground, taking wastewater to and from the plant, with a marine outfall more than a mile long and 600 feet deep. The team will build a 15,000 square foot environmental education and community center with sustainable design elements on their 114 acre site, which also includes approximately 70 acres of public open space.