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Water District 90 is planning to take their wells offline due to contamination from the proposed asphalt plant, at a cost of $500,000 per year. Renton’s wells are just downstream and the cost to Renton would be $10,000,000 (ten million) per year. Renton Council could end the risk for both water districts by purchasing the proposed asphalt plant property for about $15 million, using state grant money.
Water District 90 has three wells in the Cedar Valley Aquifer, a short distance upstream of Renton’s wells. District engineers have determined that their wells are threatened by the proposed Lakeside Industries asphalt plant. In 2018, they determined the chemical poisoning risk would likely make their wells unusable within ten years. This was before it was established that the Asphalt plant would purposefully inject their runoff into the ground. If Water District 90 can’t replace the wells, they will begin paying Seattle $500,000 per year to supply the water to the equivalent of 6000 residents. (Water District 90 already buys 70% of their water from Seattle, and they are serving a total of 20,000 residents).
Water District 90 resolution opposed to asphalt plant due to poisoning of their wells
Renton’s wells serve 20 times as many people as Water District 90’s wells, so Renton customers would have to pay ten million dollars a year to Seattle to replace our poisoned water. Even worse, our wells are sized for our city’s future growth projections, capable of delivering water to 60 % more Renton population. And this water would also have to eventually be replaced by purchases from Seattle. Given past rationing during droughts, Seattle may not even have this excess capacity.
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