West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Tour - Members Only
We invite all Harvard alumni to learn how wastewater can be recycled into reusable water, energy, and nutrients for plants and soil. Tours encourage visitors to think about responsible water use, the products they use, and how everyday choices can help protect our water. Limited to 15 Harvard Club members and their guests.
Since 1958, King County has protected water quality in the Puget Sound region by providing wastewater treatment services to King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties as part of the King County Regional Wastewater Services Plan.
In this process, King County collects wastewater from 17 cities, 17 sewer districts and serves 1.7 million people in our area. This means keeping the 400 miles of pipes that carry sewage to the treatment plants in good condition.
The King County Wastewater Treatment Division processes about 65 billion gallons of wastewater per year.
Kamuron Gurol, Harvard MPA '95
Director, King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamuron-gurol-7578a47/
Kamuron Gurol serves as a leader and manager for public sector agencies. His passion is enhancing the quality of life in the communities he serves by building organizational capacity, helping downtowns and neighborhoods thrive, building great infrastructure, and leveraging the strengths of people and teams. Innovation, partnerships and collaboration are central to his approach. He is known for managing organizations to improve performance and morale, improve customer service and citizen satisfaction, and deliver lasting value. Kamuron has an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a BS in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington and he has served as a volunteer chair and panelist for several ULI Advisory Services panels in the US and abroad helping communities address a wide range of urban real estate, land use, environmental and transportation challenges.
Wastewater tours focus on the following topics:
• Water cycle and nutrient cycle
• Wastewater treatment and human health
• Human impacts to water systems
• Pollution prevention and water conservation
Dress code:
Tours take place outside and in an industrial setting; all visitors must dress appropriately and wear long pants and closed-toed shoes.
Accessibility:
Participants must be able to walk and travel up and down multiple levels of stairs.
Other:
Tour groups must start and end the tour together; it is not possible to leave early.
Please come prepared
• Dress for the weather! Most of the tour is outside.
• Closed-toe shoes are required.
• All tour participants must be 9 years or older.
• The tour will last about two hours, including a half-mile of walking and several flights of stairs.
• Please note that every tour participant must wear a hard hat, safety vest, and safety glasses (all provided).
West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Tour
Limited to 15 Harvard Club members and their guests
Saturday, October 4, 2025
12:15am ~ 2:30pm PT
Magnolia neighborhood in Seattle
Exact meeting location will be emailed 2 days before
Cost: $10 per person
The fee for this event supports our community service programs
Hosted by: Harvard Club of Seattle
We look forward to seeing you at our event!
Seattle ordinance requiring residences to connect to sewer lines is adopted on December 4, 1885
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/3137
Pollution threatens Seattle water supply in 1889
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/3094
City of Seattle adopts plan to build a combined sewer system, to handle sewage and stormwater, on November 30, 1891
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/11013
Health officials report outbreak of typhoid in Seattle on September 12, 1909
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/8639
Metro Council, formed to clean up Lake Washington, holds inaugural meeting on October 1, 1958
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/1353
Metro diverts first treated wastewater from Lake Washington on February 23, 1963
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/2725
Metro (Seattle) dedicates West Point Treatment Plant on July 20, 1966
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/2732
Secondary treatment of sewage begins at Seattle's West Point after years of controversy on December 31, 1995
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/2735
West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle suffers major failure on February 9, 2017
HistoryLink.org
https://historylink.org/File/20503
Ship Canal Water Quality Project
Seattle.gov
https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/neighborhood-projects/ship-canal
King County Wastewater Treatment Division
KingCounty.gov
https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dnrp/waste-services/wastewater-treatment/about
Kamuron Gurol, Harvard MPA '95, WTD Director
KingCounty.gov
Your HCS membership supports our Mission!
Membership in HCS costs less than 1 latte per month.
Current Full-time Student Annual Membership price $0.00.
Most Recent Graduate Annual Membership price $0.00.
Recent Graduate Annual Membership price $35.00.
Individual Annual Membership price $70.00.
https://hcseattle.clubs.harvard.edu/memsub.html
We look forward to seeing you at future events!