An underground sewage pump station at Alki is scheduled to be expanded and will include two new ventilation stacks that nearby residents worry will spoil their view of Puget Sound.

The King County Wastewater Treatment Division plans to install the new subterranean facility at Alki Avenue and 53rd Avenue Southwest. The underground vault must be enlarged to house a standby generator to keep sewage flowing during power outages. The generator will run on diesel fuel so there also must be space for an underground fuel tank. Both the exhaust from the generator and fumes from the fuel tank will have to be vented.

The new pump station will be designed to pump 17 million gallons of sewage per day. It eventually winds up at the West Point sewage treatment plant off Magnolia.

About 15 Alki residents grilled the manager and the engineer of the project during a meeting last week at the Alki Community Center. Of greatest concern to the people at the meeting are two ventilation stacks that will be 12 feet high and 20 inches in diameter.

King County has a policy now requiring back-up generators at all sewage pump stations, so the 53rd Avenue facility must be expanded. Ventilation stacks for the diesel generators will be needed as well to vent fumes produced by the storage tank of diesel fuel. Four separate vents will be tied to one of the stacks.

Another worry of residents is dust during the estimated 20 months of construction.

Most pump stations in the King County sewer system are built above ground and look like small, nondescript houses. Because the 53rd Avenue pump station is located near Alki Beach, it was built underground on the water side of Alki Avenue. The city of Seattle originally installed it in the early 1950s, said Elizabeth Gaskill, project manager. It is of about the same vintage as the Barton Street pump station next to the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal.

The 53rd Avenue pump station is so cramped that workers endanger themselves working in it, she said, because they have to step on parts of the equipment to maneuver inside the existing vault.

Changes in code requirements for pump stations have changed over the last half-century too. The Wastewater Treatment Division has been cited for nine electrical violations at the 53 Avenue pump station, and three violations each of the plumbing, building and fire codes, Gaskill said.

King County wants to expand the underground station about 70 feet southwest along Alki Avenue. Besides installing the standby generator, the existing pumps, which have been on the job for about 25 years, will be replaced. New odor-control equipment is to be installed, which should improve the air quality in the area, said Mary Beth Gilbrough, project engineer.

A back-flow preventer must be installed to keep sewer water from fouling drinking water. A fire-sprinkler system also must be installed.

A nearby Metro Transit bus stop will have to be moved a block and a half away during construction. One streetlight also will have to be moved.

The project is scheduled to begin in September. King County Wastewater Treatment Division hopes to put the project out for bid in March and select a contractor in June.

King County intends to operate a 24-hour telephone hotline that people will be able to call about construction problems.

About 15 Alki residents attended the Jan. 15 meeting and offered plenty of suggestions.

One man recommended all of the vents be combined into a single stack that could be taller than 12 feet to lift odors up and way from the beach.

He also recommended the county install a generator that would run on natural gas or propane rather than diesel.

How about retractable ventilation stacks, asked a woman. Or stacks that could be raised and lowered like a dumbwaiter.

Instead of expanding the pump station on Alki Avenue, couldn't King County move it over to Harbor Avenue, someone else asked. Gaskill replied that would cost four to five times more.

"But isn't it worth moving because it's Alki," a woman said. "It's the best beach in Seattle."

Some of those at the meeting issued quite specific demands of King County.

"Who will clean the dust off my apartment building?" a woman asked.

Another woman said the cleaning would have to be done daily. After all, construction would be going on every day.

Who will pay if the construction project damages water heaters in nearby apartment buildings? a man asked.

About 30 curbside parking spaces on Alki Avenue would be temporarily taken over by the work site and equipment, so construction workers will be required to park their cars at the Alki sewage treatment plant and shuttle to the job site. Some meeting attendees asked if they could receive compensation for allowing people to park on their property during construction.

King County Metro should run a free shuttle bus during construction, somebody said.

Another resident suggested Alki residents get a tour of the site. The person instructed county employees to bring a tent in case it rains.

"Who's your boss?" a woman asked the Wastewater Treatment Division employees. "Why isn't the department director here? This is Alki."

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932-0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com