King County wastewater facilities resuming normal operation after severe storms, flooding

King County sewer utility crews are working around the clock to restore normal operations at several wastewater treatment facilities impacted by last night's storm.

West Point Treatment Plant in Magnolia is now fully operational after high volumes of stormwater and wastewater overwhelmed the facility about 7 p.m. on Thursday, causing significant flooding, equipment damage, and power surges that shut down pumps, forcing plant operators to bypass about 60 percent of the flows to an emergency outfall in Elliott Bay.

The bypass was necessary to protect public health and prevent personal injury and severe property damage.

By 11:30 p.m., operators were able to restart the plant and began treating flows at the primary level, which includes screening and disinfection. The plant resumed full secondary level treatment at about 8:20 a.m. Friday.

West Point typically handles about 133 million gallons of wastewater a day during rainy weather. Flow volumes last night were at or near the plant's maximum design capacity of 440 million gallons per day.

Several off-site facilities were also affected by the storm.

Severe flooding completely knocked out pumping equipment at the Barton Street Pump Station north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock in West Seattle, resulting in an emergency bypass from Barton to an outfall in Puget Sound late Thursday.

Crews expect to have a temporary pump station at Barton set up by late this afternoon to carry wastewater to Murray Avenue Pump Station so it can be treated at West Point. The county will replace the damaged pumps as quickly as possible.

To protect public health, the county posted the beaches at Fauntleroy and Lincoln Park as closed, took water samples, and told health and regulatory agencies about overflow. Neighbors have been told about the county's emergency response and repairs.

Wastewater Treatment Division staff also responded to sewage overflows at the Yarrow Bay, Juanita, Medina, Lake Ballinger, Kirkland, Hidden Lake, Belvoir and Murray Avenue pump stations.

Wide-spread power outages continue to affect several off-site facilities. Pump stations operating on emergency back-up power include Henderson, South Mercer, North Mercer, Sweyolocken, Heathfield, Sunset, Wilburton, Bellevue, Medina, Yarrow Bay, Juanita Bay, York, Kirkland, Duwamish, East Marginal, West Marginal, Kenmore, Mathews Beach, Woodinville, and Richmond Beach.

The county is still treating combined flows of stormwater and wastewater at the Carkeek, Elliott West, Henderson and Alki Combined Sewer Overflow facilities in Seattle.

People enjoy clean water and a healthy environment because of King County's wastewater treatment program. The county's Wastewater Treatment Division protects public health and water quality by serving 17 cities, 17 local sewer utilities and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Formerly called Metro, the regional clean-water agency now operated by King County has been preventing water pollution for more than 40 years.

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Note to editors and reporters: Visit the WTD Newsroom, a portal to information for the news media about the Wastewater Treatment Division, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks: http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wtd/newsroom/.