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Environment: Olympia

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The Port of Olympia’s stormwater treatment system was recently named a 2015 Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association.

Olympia Port Stormwater Treatment System Named 2015 Projects of the Year by the American Public Works Association 

The Port of Olympia’s stormwater treatment system was recently named a 2015 Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association (APWA). The Port of Olympia, as the managing agency, together with the primary contractor and consultant, received the national Project of the Year Award during APWA’s 2015 International Public Works Congress & Exposition Awards Ceremony August 30-September 2 in Phoenix. 

For many years, logging and log yard operations have been fundamental business at Washington state seaports, including Olympia. Nearly 130 million board feet of logs move through the port annually, leaving behind bark and other organic material that washes into Puget Sound. There it is consumed by bacteria, but in the process depletes the oxygen supply in the water leading to stress and mortality of aquatic life. Washington State’s Industrial Stormwater Permit set benchmarks for stormwater that contains oxygen-depleting material. The port is required to control log yard runoff to meet those benchmarks. 

The port’s design and engineering consultant designed a 3.25-acre stormwater treatment facility that meets those demands. The facility includes a three-cell system for oxidation, pH adjustment and settling; a pod of back-flushing sand filters; a sludge pond and sludge handling facilities; and a treatment building. 

The site’s configuration is designed to accommodate future growth. The system’s components are modular, allowing the system to be augmented or scaled back quickly. This design provides the port with flexibility for reducing operating costs should their treatment needs change. 

The treatment facility design incorporated application of wastewater treatment technologies to treat highly variable stormwater, and used relatively inexpensive pilot testing to guide the design.  
 

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