By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published June 20, 2012
City eyes Kimberly-Clark site for sewer facility
EVERETT - The city is eyeing the Kimberly-Clark site to build a sewer overflow facility there.
The city is studying the former mill site to locate a one million gallon sewage facility it has planned to build near Bond Street for years, public works director Dave Davis said last week.
“It’s a large facility with potential, but we’re yet to determine the potential,” Davis said of the mill site.
There’s nothing else to report on this, Davis added.
The revelation raises questions on the city’s interest in controlling the property.
Mayor Ray Stephanson fast-tracked an emergency development moratorium on the 66-acre property in February that lasts through August.
Stephanson asked for the moratorium after a fish processing plant was rumored to be interested in the site, Stephanson said shortly after the moratorium passed. At the time, no paperwork was filed with the city for such a processing plant, according to this paper’s search.
The city cannot dictate what Kimberly-Clark does with its site, but it can modify the zoning to restrict what goes on it next. Right now, the zoning allows for basically anything except housing.
The Port of Everett also is studying the site. An oil refining company expressed interest earlier this year in putting a biofuels facility on the site.
Stephanson has long said he wants to keep industrial uses on the site. People have said they want jobs and open space on the site.
Davis made the statement at last week’s City Council meeting to address a rumor of the city’s interest in putting the sewer plant there.
The planned Bond Street sewer project is a one million gallon water treatment basin at the foot of Bond Street near Forgotten Creek. The city is under a state Department of Ecology mandate to control its sewage overflows by 2017, and the city’s remedial plan is to build big retention basins. The overflows most often happen when heavy rains flood Everett’s combined sewer and storm water system.
This project will be constructed by 2015, public works spokeswoman Marla Carter said previously.
The city has two consultants working on the effort to shape and mold the waterfront. An economic analyst’s report will be released this week after press time at a workshop Tuesday, June 19.
The moratorium is expected to be extended by the City Council before it expires in August.
Kimberly-Clark has obtained a demolition permit for the site and told this paper previously it expects to begin demolition of the buildings this summer.
