News - Local News

POSTED: Thursday, Jan. 08, 2009

Sewage discharged to bay; no threat to drinking water, despite rising lake level

BELLINGHAM — An overtaxed sewage treatment system led to a discharge of sewage and stormwater into Bellingham Bay, but officials think most of it was stormwater, a city official said.

An overflow facility along C Street discharged sewage into the bay via a 96-inch-diameter pipe, as it’s designed to do when there’s too much water in the sewage treatment system, said Tom Rosenberg, acting director of Bellingham Public Works. Still, it’s the first time it’s done that in four years. He doesn’t know how much was put into the bay, and officials don’t test to see how much of the water is sewage.

Rosenberg and emergency officials briefed the City Council in an emergency meeting Wednesday, Jan. 7, before the council voted 7-0 to confirm the mayor’s proclamation of a state of emergency. The proclamation lets staff sign emergency contracts with contractors instead of going through a long bidding process.

Lake Whatcom was rising as much as one-quarter foot an hour, said Bill Boyd, Bellingham fire chief.

The city's flood-control dam along Whatcom Creek near Electric Avenue is partially open and letting water into Whatcom Creek, but officials may have to open it more to keep the lake's level from rising too much and flooding lake-side houses. City officials plan to contact residents along the creek to let them know of the potential, said Joy Monjure, Bellingham Pub-lic Works spokeswoman. For the time, it appears the lake's level has stabilized, Rosenberg said.

The city legally must open the gate of the control dam to keep it below a certain level, according to the city’s Web site, although that sends more water down Whatcom Creek, and properties down the creek along Iowa Street have seen flooding.

If they have to open the gates even more, Rosenberg said, then they want to do it slowly so there’s not a surge of water down the creek.

Lots of cloudy water is spilling into the lake from creeks and runoff, but there is no threat to the city’s drinking water, Rosenberg said.

“I don’t think the city’s going to have a drinking-water emergency,” he told city leaders.