Back on Sunday afternoon, we showed you the signs (photo left) that had just gone up after news of an hour-long overflow from the Barton Pump Station north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Tonight, King County Wastewater Treatment Division says health agencies have given the all-clear for the closed beaches to reopen. King County’s announcement late today adds: “The volume of overflow into Puget Sound was estimated at 46,000 gallons. Tidal conditions and water pressure contained a substantial amount of wastewater inside the outfall pipe, which enabled crews to use submersible pumps to capture and return a significant amount of wastewater back to the pump station so it could be conveyed to the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle.” A two-year upgrade project that’s about to get under way at the pump station includes an emergency generator; recent preparation work had involved the power system in the area, but the county hasn’t yet said whether the Sunday failure – blamed on a “failure of the main breaker,” according to spokesperson Annie Kolb-Nelson – was related to that at all.
West Seattle, Washington
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