11/18, Satuday, 10am. Guided tour of Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station.
I registered a month ahead. The tour is offered at most once a month.
We were in a classroom first, talking about the need of a storm water treatment.
Here's a comparison of the Duwamish estuary before the development, and the current concrete (shown in pink) surface, which is inpermeable.
Rain is channeled into the sewer, the combined water is piped here (only from Georgetown, a disappointingly small area for this $200M facility).
The treated water is released to Duwamish river (into Puget Sound), so is the water above the capacity.
- The Georgetown regulator station will receive and send flows from large sewer pipes, the Michigan Trunk Sewer and the Elliott Bay Interceptor, and deliver them through a 96” pipe to the equalization basin.
- Equalization basin and pump station: a large reservoir that will be able to store up to 1.1 million gallons of wastewater at one time. This basin will help to level out the variations in wastewater flow rates. Metal screens inside the basin will be used to remove debris often carried by the incoming stormwater. From the equalization basin, flows will be pumped to the treatment station by six vertical turbine pumps.
- Ballasted sedimentation: use Aluminum salt (neutralize), sand, polymer and coagulant (Aluminum sald) to sink solids from the flow stream. The sand is continuously recycled, by collecting and returning it to the beginning of the sedimentation process. The solids will be collected and pumped to the solids holding tank.
- Solids holding tank: solids will be sent to the West Point Treatment Plant for processing through the Elliott Bay Interceptor pipe. After processing at West Point, the product is sent to the Loop facilities to be made into compost.
- UV disinfection to kill germs in the sewage. Treated water will be stored in a tank at the end of the UV channels and used to wash down the equalization basin and solids tank at the end of a rainfall event.
- The odor control system: a series of activated carbon odor scrubbers.
- Conveyance: After cleaning, the underground pipes will release the treated water into the Duwamish River.
Last, our guide showed us the tall cistern, the gravel-like pavement for better permeability for water,
the rain garden, and the roof top: all means of filtering water before it goes down to the sewer.
She also encourges the public to install these things in our garden.
We hurried to catch the 12:15pm Vashon Island ferry. Almost no wait.
The boat has more room to accommodate all the vehicles.
The destination is Oscar the Bird King, the troll I won't be able to see without a car.
Oscar is surrounded by poles of bird houses.
His crown is also made of bird houses.
He sits on a throne.
Visitors decorated Oscar's toes with shells and pumpkins.
Point Robinson Lighthouse is a short walk behind Oscar, facing Seattle.
Lots of drift logs.
Walked to this bench at Maury Island Marine Park.
The gravel road was gated, so had to walk down.
The return ferry at 2:45pm never showed up. We went on for the 3:10pm ferry, and it is not only delayed, but also slower to wait for the dock to clear on the West Seattle side.
More cloudy now.
At 8pm, went to Meany Theatre to see a performance titled "Searchonig for Goya", by
Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca.
World Premiere. Inspired by the drawings and paintings of Francisco de Goya.
Choreographed by artistic director Martin Santangelo and award-winning principal dancer Soledad Barrio,
features dancers, singers and musicians "whose mastery of flamenco stretches the boundaries of the art form with a theatricality that takes audiences on a journey through Goya’s imagination".
I didn't really like it. I went only to meet my friends D & K. D used to dance Flamenco. Today's performance is very dark, not just the lighting, but also the mood. Full of fury. Impressive tap dancing. The music and singing is too loud (amplified too much), sad and angry. All in Spanish. I can only pick up some words, not any full sentence. Some of the audience members were enthusiastic, they plaused and echoed during the performance. Some, left in the middle.
It was raining when we left the theatre.
