Senior Water Quality Planner - Pollution Prevention Specialist

King County•Seattle, WA

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

The King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) is seeking a Senior Pollution Prevention Specialist (Water Quality Planner/Project Manager III) to support the division’s lines of business as a lead subject matter expert (SME) in matters of pollution prevention and source control practices and regulations, and technical support for issues in toxic contaminants and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that enter the County’s wastewater system. The Senior Planner role is a key team member in the division’s regulatory compliance work involving the Clean Water Act-NPDES and Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) and sediment management programs. The position also will help coordinate source control related work across the division’s other planning, operations, resource recovery and environmental monitoring programs. The Senior Pollution Prevention Specialist will help to influence the policies and strategic planning of meaningful and innovative programs to protect public health, improve Puget Sound water quality, and achieve the division’s fiscal and environmental stewardship commitments. The work will leverage the County’s resources and expertise involving legacy contaminants from historic operations (e.g., PCBs); and technology and management approaches for CECs such as PFAS, personal care products, and microplastics. Your expertise will be critical for communicating and educating diverse audiences on complex contaminant topics, collaborating with technical teams, engaging supervisors and division leadership, and building strong partnerships for the division’s work in wastewater, hazardous waste, recycled water, biosolids, and stormwater operations at WTD facilities. If you’re driven for experience in environmental regulatory compliance, strategic policy, problem-solving, and program development, this position offers exciting opportunities to grow your leadership skills and have a lasting regional impact. The Senior Pollution Prevention Specialist will be a technical lead for teams and projects aimed at enhancing comprehensive approaches to contaminant source control activities and investments. The primary objective is to support teams and organize, develop, manage, and track actions to reduce the impacts from excess household and commercial/industrial products and chemical sources to domestic and industrial wastewater; stormwater (from WTD infrastructure) and CSO discharges; and our recovered products. You will serve in a pivotal position providing expertise and guidance in contaminant source identification, pollution reduction Best Management Practices, internal and external communications and education, and regulatory compliance issues. As a senior planner, you will help define and track program effectiveness, coordinate with activities across other divisions and County departments, recommend internal policies and compliance documentation, and develop annual and long-range program updates related to WTD’s NPDES permits. Senior planners also administer regulatory submittals, databases and records requests, and assist internal budget and financial processes, and provide technical program information for King County Council and committee processes (e.g., MWPAAC and RWQC). The environmental regulatory and permitting programs of most importance to this work that the position may coordinate with include: West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant NPDES permit (renewed 4/29/24) and federal Consent Decree for the CSO system, and NPDES permits for South Plant, Brightwater, Carnation, and Vashon Island wastewater treatment plants; King County’s Source Control Implementation Plan (SCIP) for the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site and related CSO basin prioritization and source tracing studies; King County Industrial Waste (KCIW) pretreatment program; WTD’s resource recovery products and programs (e.g., biosolids, recycled water); WTD's coverage for facilities under Washington’s NPDES stormwater permits. The Senior Pollution Prevention Specialist also will help to achieve objectives outlined in King County’s Clean Water Healthy Habitat Strategic Plan, PFAS Strategic Plan, 6-PPDQ Strategic Plan, and Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan. This position follows a hybrid work model, blending remote and in-person work.

Requirements

Minimum 5-years experience in environmental pollution prevention, source control, or investigations with toxic contaminants in wastewater or stormwater OR 5 years of equivalent knowledge and similar progressive environmental experience such as inspection, regulatory compliance, waste management
Demonstrated experience in the collection and interpretation of environmental information (e.g., regulatory, scientific, planning, or engineering) to support administrative records, reports, and meetings
Strong written and verbal communication skills for conveying technical, regulatory, or complex information for diverse audiences
Experience identifying approaches and methods to resolve problems or issues particularly where there may be ambiguity and lack of established procedures
Experience coordinating or leading teams or projects

Nice To Haves

Experience in a field of environmental regulatory compliance (e.g., Clean Water Act-NPDES, industrial pretreatment, Safe Drinking Water Act, RCRA/CERCLA)
Direct experience preparing data, documents, reports, or compliance submittals for environmental programs (e.g., permits, regulatory development, or legislation)
Experience applying an equity or environmental justice framework in work or other endeavor

Responsibilities

Coordinate pollution prevention program actions for individual NPDES permits for the wastewater treatment plants and the CSO system
Serve as point of contact for WTD’s division-wide contaminant source control activities, and monitor the state of science, technology, and regulations around contaminants for legacy pollutants and CECs
Coordinate actions under King County’s SCIP for the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site including preparation of annual reports and 5-year updates
Assist with obligations for WTD facilities under the County’s Phase 1 Municipal Stormwater NPDES Permit supporting regulatory compliance for our permitted sites, including Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Coordinate various types of pollution prevention planning processes; problem definition, scoping, and budgeting; team building; document and deliverable approaches and content; prioritization and scheduling of tasks: and supporting decision-making processes
Communicate and coordinate teamwork, objectives and expected outcomes, instructions and guidance, data collection and analysis, information dissemination, and education and outreach for technical contaminant studies
Incorporate principles of sustainability and equity, as outlined in the County’s Equity, and Social Justice Strategic Plan
Manage work activities to meet or exceed all established standards for regulatory compliance and service to ratepayers
Navigate achieving results from people who do not report to you while maintaining consistently good working relationships with colleagues