Crossposted from Clean Water Stories

Blink and you’d probably miss the driveway into Vashon Treatment Plant. Everything about this plant is pint-sized, a much scaled-down version of the massive clean water facilities servicing the mainland.  

Despite the solitude, a lot happens in this quiet, serene spot in the woods where all the wastewater going down the drains of more than 1,000 people on the island ends up.  

Elizabeth Corliss has been at the helm of Vashon Treatment Plant for four years now. Everyone calls her Lizzy. She grew up on Vashon and never knew the treatment plant was there until she joined King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD). “I tell people what I do, and they’re like, ‘What, we have that?’” Read more.