December 2024
As the holiday season and end of year approaches, King County’s project team is checking in with the East Lake Sammamish area. As a bonus, our friend Sonic, pictured to the right, is here to prevent holiday chaos in your sewer system with some simple tips. Keep reading to learn more!
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Project Update
Right now, we are continuing to develop options to build wastewater capacity and divert flows to King County’s Brightwater Treatment Plant. Gathering information through both desktop research and field surveys helps us make good decisions about what options might work for new sewer infrastructure. Even when King County replaces or upgrades existing sewer systems, we evaluate a wide range of factors that can affect the project.
This will be our final email of 2024. We thank you for your patience as we carried out field work in East Lake Sammamish Parkway this year. We hope you enjoy the holiday season and look forward to connecting with you after the new year.
As our holiday gift to you, scroll down to see our message below to learn how you can take our survey and keep your pipes clean this holiday season.
The Sammamish Plateau Diversion Project team wants to hear from you!
Thank you to everyone who has filled out online community and business surveys. Your responses tell us what is important to you and how best to serve you and your community. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please take about 10 minutes to take our survey. If you have taken it, feel free to share with neighbors and friends who may want to participate as the project moves forward!
We have two different surveys, one for community members and one for local businesses. If you are both a community member and a local business owner who may be affected by future construction, please consider filling out both surveys.
If you prefer to provide the information in the survey over the phone or by other means, please contact Monica Van der Vieren at 206-477-5502 or monica.vandervieren@kingcounty.gov.
Misfit toys embark on an unexpected plumbing venture
It’s that time of year when kids get lots of gifts, people are tired and distracted, and a lot of holiday cheer ends up down the drain. LEGOS, rubber duckies, action figures, jewelry and an amazing amount of money show up at King County’s treatment plants. Bar screens filter out trash so that we can recycle solids. At West Point Treatment Plant, employees have scrubbed up tiny escapees to highlight what the plant deals with.
Photo of discarded toys at West Point Treatment Plant.
Despite their cute appearance, each item in West Point Treatment Plant's toy collection is a sign of sewer trouble. While these happy wanderers got fished out and cleaned up at a wastewater treatment plant, many others clog household systems.
Sewer backups can drain your toy budget while filling your house with some mighty unpleasant water. And they raise your costs in another way. The King County Wastewater Treatment Division spent over $120,000 in 2019 to remove wipes, tampons, and other trash from treatment plants—enough to fill two semi-trucks weekly. This also raises system operation and maintenance costs.
Flushing etiquette is simple: stick to the “4 Ps”—poo, pee, puke, and (toilet) paper. Nothing else!

Please visit the webpage below to learn how you can help safeguard our wastewater system. We appreciate your cooperation and wish you a safe holiday season.
We know that large construction projects can be stressful for communities, and there are a lot of construction projects going on across the Eastside. Our project team is committed to being available and continuing to work with neighbors, businesses, visitors, and commuters every step of the way. We will be here for you all the way through design and construction and into operations. Feel free to contact us at any time!
Contact us
Monica Van der Vieren, Community Services Lead
Monica.VanDerVieren@kingcounty.gov, 206-477-5502
Visit us at kingcounty.gov/SammamishPlateauDiversion
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