The Metro
'How
Gleaned Up
°Lake'Washington

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l$e £Metro
°How
Glea°Up
%ake 'Washington
lA/hat can citizen action accomplish in cleaning
"up polluted waters?
A great deal.
The people of Seattle and its suburbs have
proved just how much. Their joint efforts resulted
in cleaning up the pollution of Lake Washington
and nearby Puget Sound. Citizens elsewhere can
learn from Seattle's experience and successfully
duplicate it.
Eighty percent of Greater Seattle is surrounded
by water. Its residents, crowded between the salt
waters of Puget Sound and the fresh waters of
Lake Washington, have always made great use of
these waters for swimming, fishing and boating.
Seattle, in fact, has more pleasure boats per
capita than any comparable city in the country.
By 1958, however, the lake had become so
polluted that it was declared "unsafe" for swim-
ming, and other recreational activities were
almost prohibited. The cause was a profuse
growth of algae, stimulated by nutrients dis-
charged into the lake from 10 sewage treatment
plants. Green scum collected on the windward
shores, and the odor of dying algae was strong,
especially in late summer. Beach closures be-
cause of bacterial contamination were common-
place. Water visibility was only 2V2 feet; 8 years
earlier it had been 12 feet.
The waters of Puget Sound were also polluted,
assaulted by 70 million gallons of raw sewage
a day. Its beaches, too, were unsafe for swim-
ming.
Today, all this is changed. The waters are
clean, and area residents mean to keep them that
way.
How did Seattle residents do it?
They tackled the problem at its source—the

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More than 95 percent of the suspended solids from raw
sewage are removed by the treatment plant at Renton.
Proving "it can be done", the citizens of the

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Clean Water. Visibility of a white disc is now 12 feet.
At its worst, pollution had cut visibility to 2*/2 fee*-
metropolitan Seattle area cleaned up Lake

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city's suburbs encircled Lake Washington after
World War II. What was needed was a single
governmental unit to deal with all the pollution
sources in the drainage basins affecting Greater
Seattle. The answer the residents came up with
was METRO, the Municipality of Metropolitan
Seattle.
As their first step, concerned citizens per-
suaded the Washington State Legislature in 1957
to pass an enabling act which permitted the
establishment of a metropolitan government with
specific functions. Next, they organized to win
voter approval of METRO to handle the area's
sewage disposal programs. The citizens left few
stones unturned. They organized a speakers'
bureau which scheduled more than 300 talks over
a six-week period. Endorsements were sought
and obtained from county conventions of both
political parties from mayors and city council
members of all incorporated communities that
would be affected and from more than 200 civic,
sports, community and professional organiza-
tions. The public campaign climaxed with 5,000
men, women and children ringing doorbells and
delivering information on the METRO proposal.
When the votes were counted, METRO had won.
The specific powers it was granted included:
(1)	To propose a comprehensive wastewater
treatment plan,
(2)	To acquire, construct, operate and regu-
late the use of metropolitan sewerage.
(3)	To require connection of local systems to
metropolitan facilities.
(4)	To fix rates and charges for the use of
the facilities.
(5)	To establish minimum standards for the
construction of local sewage facilities and
to approve plans for their construction.
METRO'S pollution abatement programs cover
all drainage basins affecting the waters of Greater
Seattle. Since 1958, METRO not only has met
present needs, it has designed and built facilities
to accomodate future economic and population
growth.
The basic approach to the cleanup of Lake
Washington was construction of a comprehensive
system of interceptor sewers to eliminate all dis-
charges into Lake Washington and the raw sew-
age discharge into Puget Sound. Twenty-eight
scattered sewage treatment plants have been

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plants at Renton on the Duwamish River and
Westpoint on Puget Sound.
METRO'S massive sewerage program was paid
for by people of the Seattle area. Expenditures
of $125 million were authorized in 1961 and an
additional $80 million in 1966. Through May
1972, METRO'S capital investments totaled $179
million. Federal grants from the Environmental
Protection Agency and its predecessor agency
have totaled $17,580,496.
The waters of Lake Washington are now clean.
Damaging discharges have been eliminated.
Beaches are open and fully used. But, most im-
portant, the cleanup was accomplished by the
people of the Seattle area.
The METRO example shows that metropolitan
water pollution can be cleaned up. For more de-
tailed information, contact: Municipality of Metro-
politan Seattle, 410 West Harrison, Seattle,
Washington 98119.
The reader Is free to quote or reproduce
any part of this without -further permission.
AUGUST 1972
SB
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1972 0 - 473-763
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 10 cents
EPA Library Region 4
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