It was a tale of two health advisories that created a bit of confusion in Kitsap County following a major sewage spill last week from King County’s West Point treatment plant.
A beach closure in Kitsap County included the eastern shoreline of Bainbridge Island north of Eagle Harbor plus North Kitsap from the Agate Pass bridge to Point Jefferson between Kingston and Indianola.
Map: Washington State Department of Health
The closure area was determined in part by computer models, which showed that spills of sewage, oil and other substances are capable of crossing Puget Sound from Seattle and hitting the shore of Kitsap County, according to Scott Berbells, section manager for shellfish growing areas, a division of the Washington State Department of Health.
Such a scenario occurred in December 2003, when 4,800 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled from a barge at the Chevron/Texaco Facility at Point Wells, south of Edmonds. The oil crossed Puget Sound and damaged shellfish beaches in North Kitsap. See Kitsap Sun, Dec. 31, 2003.
The latest spill, about 3 million gallons of raw sewage mixed with stormwater, occurred at West Point in Seattle’s Magnolia area — about 20 miles south of Point Wells.
The exact trajectory of a spill depends greatly on winds and tidal currents, but state and county health officials tend to be cautious, thus the closure of Kitsap County’s shoreline. Water-quality testing has not revealed the presence of bacteria from the West Point sewer spill, but the tests are limited to a few areas, according to John Kiess, environmental health director for the Kitsap Public Health District. It is best to be cautious in these situations, he said.
