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The Solid Waste Division takes seriously its obligation to provide safe, environmentally responsible waste disposal services for the benefit of the businesses and residents we serve in King County. We understand the community and employees have expressed concern about arsenic levels in the wastewater generated at the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill that exceed permittable limits for discharge into the regional sewer system. That’s why we want to make sure our partners, customers, employees, and ratepayers have a complete set of facts around the issue, including a clear understanding of the many actions we’ve taken to comply with our regulatory permits and the obstacles standing in our way.
After extensive investigation and monitoring that began five years ago, we concluded the primary source of the arsenic was the wastewater, called plant condensate, generated by the processes used by Bio Energy Washington (BEW) to convert the methane gas generated at the landfill into pipeline-quality gas. Plant condensate is liquid waste generated by BEW’s gas conversion plant.
For more than a decade, we’ve had a productive public-private partnership with BEW, a for-profit company, to capture and convert gas generated at the landfill into clean renewable energy, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and generating revenue for the Solid Waste Division. But we’re currently unable to achieve this because BEW has ceased its operations in violation of the contract they signed with King County.
Our response to BEW upon discovering their plant condensate contained higher levels of arsenic than allowed by environmental regulations was to demand they dispose of their arsenic-laden wastewater at an approved treatment facility, but they have refused to do so. BEW has escalated the problem by closing down its gas conversion plant despite our offers to cover costs associated with proper disposal of the wastewater while a legal dispute between the two parties is worked out.
As litigation proceeds, the division’s goal is to get the gas conversion plant back up and running in the quickest timeframe possible. A restart of the plant would be the best environmental outcome.
Until that happens, the Solid Waste Division is flaring gas that would normally be processed at the BEW plant, which is required by our Clean Air Act Permits. Landfills produce methane, which is a strong greenhouse gas. The standard industry practice which is also required by regulators is to flare the gas. Our air quality permit requires a 95.8% pollutant removal rate, so the flaring process is highly effective at significantly reducing methane emissions.
Over the past couple of months, BEW has been focused on publicly promoting claims that the methane gas being flared is also emitting arsenic. To be clear, BEW should not be using the environmental impacts of flaring as a strategy to improve its negotiation position, especially when it has the full ability to reopen the plant and end this problem pending full resolution by the court.
Because we take our operations and safety record seriously, we have been working with regulators on guidance around monitoring for airborne arsenic, which just recently became a requirement under a permit issued by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. We have also hired an industrial hygienist to measure actual employee exposure to potential airborne arsenic emissions, as well as contractors that will begin testing the emissions from the flares.
Although we would much rather see this methane converted to natural gas in an operational BEW plant, flaring is the only available option following BEW’s unfortunate and precipitous decision to cease operations. The heart of the Solid Waste Division’s mission is to ensure zero waste of resources. The actions by BEW are a terrible waste of resources that could benefit the people of King County.
King County’s Solid Waste Division works with many regulators at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure safety for our workers and the public and to be good stewards of the environment. For air quality issues, we are regulated by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the EPA. We also work with King County Industrial Waste program to monitor our leachate (wastewater), and with Public Health – Seattle & King County to ensure we meet local public health and safety regulations. We regularly monitor and report on the quality of the air, groundwater, leachate and stormwater, and we restrict or prohibit the disposal of many types of waste that could be harmful or toxic.
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