www.SeattleTimes.com
King County, Washington, is prepared to pay over $5 million to settle a threatened lawsuit from the Suquamish Tribe. The threatened lawsuit regarded the millions of gallons of sewage spills that have overflowed from county treatment plants into Puget Sound, Washington. The settlement also sets timelines for an estimated $600 million in improvements over the next decade to the county's West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle, Washington's Discovery Park. The settlement includes a $40,000 penalty for missed deadlines and $10,000 for each additional month of delay. Half of the proposed $5 million settlement would go into a mitigation fund, controlled by the tribe. The other half would go toward a new environmental project of the county’s choosing and must be completed within five years.