FOLLOWUP: Beach/water warning lifted, one week after 13,000-gallon sewage leak in West Seattle

| Environment | West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news

(June 17 photo by Reiner Peery)

The last “stay out of the water” warning from a sewage leak one week ago has been lifted. We confirmed with King County Wastewater Treatment District spokesperson Akiko Oda that the warning for the Cormorant Cove area (3700 block Beach Drive SW) would end this morning as scheduled. Oda says the remaining “beach closed” signage will be removed this afternoon. The leak was blamed on equipment failure involving a flow gate at the 63rd Avenue Pump Station south of Constellation Park, and KCWTD estimates about 13,000 gallons of sewage had leaked into Puget Sound before the leak was caught and stopped.

Lisa June 24, 2026 (3:01 pm)

Thanks for all the great reporting, WSB.I actually hadn’t seen the previous mention of this but appreciate your follow up.

The original article said it was a “ brief sewer overflow.” How did they know how long it was going on before they even noticed it? And then it took them 90 minutes to fix. I don’t consider 90 minutes “brief” when it comes to toxic water and it had been going on prior to that. Ugh. City of Seattle, minimizing this.

WSB June 25, 2026 (1:56 am)

To clarify, this was the King County Wastewater Treatment Division, not the city.

Pete June 25, 2026 (8:50 am)

They aren’t minimizing anything? They literally publicized the leak and have followed all reporting protocols. Accidents, unfortunately, happen when they are dealing with a 100-year-old conveyance system.

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