Wastewater Treatment

West Sound Utility District operates the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility that serves the City of Port Orchard and the District. Prior to 1984, the City and District each had their own primary treatment plants. When the State and federal law mandated secondary treatment for wastewater, the two agencies cooperated and constructed the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility. The City and District each manage their own collection systems. Together, they manage the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility with a joint committee (the Sewer Advisory Committee) of City Council members and District Commissioners.

The Facility can treat wastewater with its anaerobic process, membrane bioreactors, and the ballasted clarifier.  It has a design capacity of 4.2 million gallons per day and averages 1.7 million gallons per day. It can and has treated peak flows up to 16 million gallons. Highlights of the treatment process include:

• The Facility produces Class A reclaimed water and the District is working towards developing a distribution system for this water. The local streams with low base flows can use this resource to replenish the summer flows. The water can also be used to reduce potable water for large scale irrigation.
• The Facility is working with the Retsil Veterans Home to use the surplus methane gas to reduce the Home’s purchases of commercial natural gas.
• The Facility is developing a process to upgrade its bio-solids from Class B to class A. The Class A bio-solids can then be used by local industries for land reclamation and fertilizer.