Rebuilding the Ash Mountain Wastewater Plants at Sequoia and Kings Canyon

The Buckeye Housing wastewater treatment plant lagoon. NPS/Jeannie Pham.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park is using Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) funds to rehabilitate two deteriorated wastewater treatment plants at Ash Mountain, which serve the park's headquarters, gateway area and 150 permanent and seasonal staff.

Why it matters

Since 1926 the Ash Mountain entrance has been the park's main gateway. Its visitor centre, headquarters, fire management building, warehouse, vehicle shops and more than 40 operations and housing buildings all depend on the two plants. If one failed, the whole Ash Mountain operation could shut down and sewage could overflow into nearby rivers. As America's second national park, Sequoia has many facilities dating from the 1920s that need major updates.

The project

The work will:

• rehabilitate and replace critical parts of both plants, the Ash Mountain and Buckeye Housing plants, including controls and monitoring systems, headworks, overflow and chlorination systems, the treatment dosing building and disposal fields;
• correct electrical and fire code violations, making the plants safer and avoiding fines;
• repave access roads and repair fences and signs;
• correct $8.773 million of deferred maintenance, with renovations built to last decades;
• protect visitors' and employees' health and the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River from sewage spills.

Sources

• National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, "Ash Mountain Wastewater Treatment Facilities to be Rehabilitated in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park through GAOA Funding." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/gaoa-ash-mountain-wastewater-treatment-facilities.htm
• The original says the facilities serve 1.2 million visitors a year and that the Ash Mountain entrance serves 1.6 million; neither figure is repeated here.