For those who wonder what the construction activity going on at 28721 West Valley in north Auburn is all about, at the very spot where King County had talked about building a transfer station site to replace the 50-year-old transfer station in Pacific.

Well, for starters, it is not a transfer station.

Instead, Poe Construction of Auburn has pitched into building a warehouse distribution center for the property’s new owner, Panattoni Development Co. of Newport Beach, Calif.

The King County Solid Waste Division (KCSWD) confirmed by phone recently that the construction hubbub and flying dust has nothing to do with a transfer station. A spokesperson said that the top candidate for a new South King County transfer station is Algona.

“The environmental review process undertaken by King County examines the probable significant adverse environmental impacts of this project for each site. This effort revealed issues at the two sites located in Auburn that would significantly affect the project cost and schedule. Such issues do not exist for the site located in Algona, next to the current facility,” according to King County’s website.

“The King County Solid Waste Division is in the process of discussing mitigation strategies with the City of Algona that would address the minor potential environmental impacts anticipated, and would allow the County to site the new station next to the existing station. These discussions are productive and ongoing,” according to the website.”

The Auburn site is one of 12 industrial projects Panattoni  expects to build between Sumner and Everett.

KCSWD expects to release a new timeline for the project in September.