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dedicates a secondary sewage treatment plant in Renton on July
22, 1965. HistoryLink.org Essay 2737 : Printer-Friendly Format
On July 22, 1965, Metro's large East Division Reclamation Plant
in Renton is dedicated. This plant is designed to treat 24
million gallons of raw sewage a day from South King County
before discharge into the Duwamish River, with an ultimate
capacity of 144 million gallons a day. It is dedicated in memory
of Harold E. Miller (d. 1964), Metro's first executive
Construction on the 53-acre project began on July 20, 1961, next
to Longacres Racetrack on land purchased from the Great Northern
Railroad and the Earlington golf course. Metro promised that if
the effluent caused any problems for the Duwamish River, the
discharge would be moved to Puget Sound. By 1980, along with
rising population in the service area, ammonia and chlorine
levels had risen in the river. Metro planned a pipe for treated
effluent through deep tunnels to Point