A power outage that hit the West Seattle area just before 2 a.m. Wednesday was largely unnoticed by thousands who slept through it, only to wake up with clocks reset and other items blinking, but it did affect the King County Murray Avenue Pump Station which overflowed an estimated 18,000 gallons of wastewater for 20 minutes through an emergency outfall into Puget Sound near Lowman Beach Park. This prevented raw sewage backups and equipment damage.

Wastewater Treatment Division utility crews responded quickly and deployed a portable emergency generator in the pump station as a source of temporary power.

Division employees notified health and regulatory agencies about the overflow. King County will install a permanent generator at the pump station as part the Murray Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project.

The Murray Avenue station pumps wastewater from West Seattle to the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood. West Point treats about 133 million gallons of wastewater daily, and up to 440 million gallons during rainy weather.