The Metropolitan King County Council Committee of the Whole approved a proposed ordinance on Sept. 23 to allocate $1,674,967 in waterworks grants to support 35 community water-quality projects across the wastewater service area.
Policy staff said the funding will come from the Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) operating budget and that the waterworks program implements a council financial policy allowing 0.5–1.5% of the WTD operating budget to fund water-quality improvement activities. "This fund connects community priorities with public purpose through environmental stewardship," said Council Member Sara Nelson Quinn, sponsor of the council-selected round.
Staff described that $136,376 of the allocation is reserved for administrative support and that $123,500 of prior-year unspent funds were available to supplement 2025 allocations. Projects selected by council districts will be administered with WTD oversight. The council’s list of selected projects was attached as Amendment 1 to the ordinance; the package also included two technical corrections (Amendments 2 and T1).
The proposed ordinance (2025-0276) was introduced in the committee for final action. Andy Miklow from council policy staff briefed the committee on eligibility rules and the funding split between council-selected and competitively selected grants. The committee approved Amendment 1 to add the project list and then adopted the two technical amendments before voting to advance the ordinance with a due-pass recommendation to the Oct. 7 council consent agenda.
Council members praised the mix of monitoring, education and restoration projects funded across the county. Council Member Perry noted local projects addressing toxic algae, oxygen-depleting organisms and stormwater green infrastructure, and thanked staff for the competitive vetting process. Committee members also thanked central staff lead Jenny Giambattista for administrative support.
Clerk roll call recorded unanimous committee approval on final passage (9 ayes, 0 nos). The ordinance’s appropriation authority resides in the WTD operating budget; projects that received partial or no council funding will remain eligible for consideration through the waterworks competitive track.
The council packet includes a project table (Amendment 1) listing the 35 council-selected projects; examples mentioned during the briefing included a City of Kent water-monitoring program for Lake Meridian and Lake Fenwick and educational partnerships with local school districts. The competitive grant portal for the WTD committee-selected projects remained open through Sept. 30, 2025, for the multi-year competitive cycle the executive elected to run for 2025–2027.