750,000 Gallons Of Wastewater Spill Into Lake Washington

BELLEVUE, WA - An unmanned pump station near Mercer Slough in Bellevue spilled some 750,000 gallons of wastewater into Lake Washington early Tuesday morning, according to King County.

The spill happened because the pump station's warning system didn't alert county workers to the severity of the problem right away.

"The unmanned pump station went out at approximately 2:11 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12. An initial investigation by the Wastewater Treatment Division determined that an error in the pump station’s warning system mistakenly characterized the station problem as a low priority malfunction, delaying the response by several hours," Wastewater Treatment Division spokesman Norm Mah said in a press release.

The outflow was corrected by around 5:45 a.m. Tuesday. The county is monitoring shoreline and water quality in the area, Mah said. Warning signs have been posted near where the spill happened.

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