The King County Wastewater Treatment Division is planning more than $800 million in infrastructure upgrades at its South Treatment Plant in Renton, Wash. The county recently selected Jacobs to provide program management and consulting services supporting the work, the firm announced July 2.

The South Treatment Plant is one of five wastewater plants in King County, which includes the city of Seattle. The plant began operating in 1965 and treats an average of 90 million gallons of wastewater per day, according to WTD.

WTD has a slate of about 30 capital improvement projects planned for the South Treatment Plant, such as influent pump station seismic upgrades, dissolved air flotation thickener tank rehabilitation, dewatering carbon scrubber improvements, raw sewage pump replacement and electrical improvements. The $13-million contract with Jacobs covers the first phase of the potentially multi-phased contract.

The plant’s infrastructure program “represents both a cross-generational investment in local Washington state communities and a commitment to preserve water quality throughout the region,” said Katus Watson, Jacobs senior vice president, in a statement. 

This has been the county regional treatment system’s most productive five years for improvements since it was built in the 1960s, with dozens of capital projects, according to WTD. The division is planning to invest more than $10 billion over the next decade on maintenance and repair of aging assets and construction of new infrastructure in preparation for climate change. 

In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had committed to provide WTD with a $498.3-million low-interest Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan package to help fund 14 infrastructure projects focused on improving water quality, including the South Treatment Plant influent pump station seismic upgrades. The project is intended to protect the plant from large seismic events. 

Jacobs has previously provided water quality-related infrastructure services for King County on projects including the Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station and Brightwater Treatment Plant. The firm is also currently the design engineer for a progressive design-build project rehabilitating sections of the Eastside Interceptor wastewater conveyance pipeline in Bellevue, Wash.