Hilary N. Karasz, Public Health – Seattle & King County
Public Health – Seattle & King County on Monday afternoon reopened North and South beaches at Discovery Park. These two beaches were closed Friday in an abundance of caution after a West Point sewage bypass into Puget Sound. Water quality tests conducted over the past three days have all come back under the state standard.
A Seattle City Light power surge and outage that affected more than 10,000 customers in Seattle caused pumping to shut down throughout the West Point Treatment Plant early Friday morning, July 19.
To prevent flooding in the plant, the staff allowed an estimated 3 million gallons of stormwater mixed with wastewater into Puget Sound through an emergency outfall pipe for 27 minutes. Then, normal operations were quickly restored.
At no time were any other beaches in King County closed due to this event. North and South beaches at Discovery Park are adjacent to the waste water treatment plant. Test results at other beach locations in Seattle, in addition to tests at North and South beaches, also are consistently under the state standard.
As the local health agency, Public Health determines the potential risk to human health from sewage overflow events and acts out of precaution to protect the public’s health by closing beaches until testing indicates the all-clear.
