PORT ANGELES — An advisory warning against recreational contact with the waters of Port Angeles Harbor will be re-evaluated Tuesday and may be lifted a day earlier than planned, according to a Clallam County health official.
The county Health Department issued the advisory after 1 million gallons of partially treated but unchlorinated sewage spewed into Port Angeles Harbor last week following a malfunction at the city’s sewage treatment plant that disabled a chlorine pump.
Although the risk of contamination was low, county health officials advised the public Thursday to avoid recreational water contact in Port Angeles Harbor through next Wednesday.
“We’ll take some samples Monday, and if they turn out to be OK, we’ll probably say fine and remove the advisory,” county hydrogeologist Carol Creasey said Friday.
The advisory could be lifted Tuesday after the samples are evaluated, she said.
“It is an advisory,” she added. “It’s not like we closed the beaches or anything.”
About 1 million gallons of “insufficiently disinfected effluent” was released from a discharge pipe at a depth of 60 feet from an outfall 3,500 feet from shore between 1 p.m. Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday when a chlorine pump was not operating.
Primary and secondary treatment of the sewage had removed solids, leaving effluent that still contained fecal coliform, found in feces, and other pathogens that are killed by chlorine.
Coliforms generally do not pose a danger to people or animals, but they indicate the presence of other disease-causing bacteria, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Levels fall
Kathryn Neal, city engineering manager, said Friday that after the spill was discovered, fecal coliform levels were 800 colonies per 100 milliliters.
That’s four times the monthly limit of 200 colonies and twice the weekly limit of 400 colonies allowed under the city’s federal discharge permit.
Neal said a sample taken at 8 a.m. Thursday, after 24 hours of chlorine being pumped again into the sewage, showed a level of 7 colonies per 100 milliliters.
Switching control system
The pump in the sewage plant’s secondary treatment building stopped injecting chlorine into the effluent Tuesday while contractors were switching the plant’s control system to AC power.
“Some equipment they knew would be affected was put on manual control, but they didn’t know the chlorine pump would be affected,” Neal said.
“The chlorine system was not located in the same building, and there was not a . . . diagram that indicated it would be affected.
“The fact is, we are remodeling the old system, and it has some anomalous features.”
Ecology Department
It’s too early to say whether the city violated its federal discharge permit, a state Department of Ecology official said Friday.
“The exceedance of 800 colonies would be averaged out depending on what happens later, so there may not be a permit exceedance,” said Rich Doenges, section manager for the water quality program in Ecology’s southwest regional office.
“You have to see it as an important issue when equipment fails,” he added.
Neal said procedures have been established to ensure that power is running to all essential equipment.
“We’ll do that twice a day for the duration of the project,” Neal said.
Doenges said the discharge was not as serious as overflows of combined raw sewage and stormwater that have afflicted Port Angeles Harbor in recent years.
Six million gallons flowed into the harbor in March and 8 million gallons in October 2013.
County public health officials warned against having any contact with water for seven days after those two overflows.
The city is working on a $42 million project to reduce combined sewer outfall discharges under an Ecology mandate to do so by 2016.
It’s the largest public works project in the city’s history.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
