No-contact advisory issued in Eagle Harbor after sewage discharge
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – A no-contact advisory has been issued for Eagle Harbor and Wing Point because of a discharge of more than 19,000 gallons of partially treated sewage.
The advisory area includes all of Eagle Harbor and areas along the shoreline north of Wing Point, the Kitsap Public Health District said. The sewage discharge occurred Tuesday, and the no-contact advisory is set to run through Feb. 2.
In an email to the Kitsap Sun, city of Bainbridge Island spokeswoman Kristen Drew said the discharge was connected to a power outage that caused the ultraviolet disinfection system at the city's wastewater treatment plant to partially turn off. The outage occurred after regular working hours, and operators responded within 35 minutes after receiving a notice from the plant's remote sensor system, she said.
"UV is the city’s secondary treatment system (after clarifying/settling)," Drew said. "When there’s momentary power loss at the plant, the system goes off and needs to be reset. During regular operating hours, an operator is on-site to reset the system if it fails to happen automatically, but after hours an operator sometimes needs to manually reset the system."
Public Works staff will be working in the coming months to evaluate the system and other potential options as part of upcoming work related to upgrading the plant's capacity, Drew said.
The discharge was unrelated to a spill from the city's Wing Point pump station earlier this month, Drew said, noting that in that case, a combination of a very high tide and rain covered a hatch cover and prevented a response to a failed pump. In that incident, it was estimated that about 1,500 gallons of sewage went into the water near Wing Point.
Nathan Pilling is a reporter covering Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap and Washington State Ferries for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-5242, nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @KSNatePilling.
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This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: No-contact advisory issued in Eagle Harbor after sewage discharge
