Taking it out to sea
by By David Olson - Herald Writer

EVERETT -- Eric Grinde watched as the end of a 400-foot section of giant plastic pipe began sinking toward the bottom of Port Gardner Bay on Monday.

By February, more than 30 million gallons of treated wastewater from Kimberly-Clark's Everett plant will rush through the pipe on its way to the bay, where it will mix with sea water and cause less damage to marine life than the company's discharges do now.

"This is a key milestone in this project," said Grinde, project engineer for Kimberly-Clark, as divers monitored the pipe as it sank.

Monday's segment is where the pipe will run from the shallow tide flats to the cold, deep water of Port Gardner Bay. And sending wastewater to points 350 feet deep is what the $60 million project -- including about $16 million that Kimberly-Clark is contributing -- is all about. When it's finished in February, the pipe will connect to the Kimberly-Clark plant on Everett's waterfront.

Wastewater from Everett and Marysville will be pumped to Kimberly-Clark and mixed with the company's wastewater before it is sent into the bay. By using the new outfall, the two cities will stop discharging wastewater into the Snohomish River. Together the cities are paying the rest of the tab.

Kimberly-Clark has long sent its wastewater into Port Gardner Bay, but two of the three pipes it uses -- each more than a half-century old -- are made of wood. One is rotting and sometimes leaks, and the other sends waste only 50 feet from shore into water that is less than 30 feet deep. The high-tech 63-inch-diameter pipe being installed Monday is made of polyethylene and will have 80 points in its final 1,590 feet at which it will discharge wastewater. That will dilute the material much more than the three pipes do now, Grinde said.

Among the pollutants that Kimberly-Clark sends to Possession Sound as byproducts of its paper production are minute amounts of dioxins and furans, which, according to the state Department of Ecology, can hurt marine life. By diluting the wastewater far more than now, the new pipeline will reduce that harm.

The portion of the pipe that goes through water more than 50 feet deep will simply lie on the floor of the sound. But the part in more shallow water will be buried in the same sediment that is being removed to dig the trench in which it will lie.

"That's so it's not an obstruction for marine life," Grinde said. "It's a more natural habitat without having a huge manmade object out there." Crabs, sand shrimp and clams are among the marine life in the tide flats. It's also more aesthetically pleasing. After the pipeline is complete, workers will create a public beach from the nearby shoreline. On Monday, workers adjusted the amount of water flowing into the 400-foot segment of pipe and the amount of air going in, so it would sink slowly to the bottom.

Workers had to position the pipe carefully, so it didn't fall hard onto the bottom and break, and so it fit exactly where the trench was dug. Huge concrete and steel-reinforced weights every 10 feet ensure that the pipe stays where it's put.

"Otherwise it would work itself up over time and re-expose itself and float," Grinde said.

Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com .