Appletree Cove safe after sewage spill

Published 1:04 pm Thursday, November 15, 2012

KINGSTON — Appletree Cove and the streams near West Kingston Road are once again safe to be around. Kitsap County Public Health has lifted its warning of bacteria contamination following a sewage spill Nov. 1.

Kitsap County Public Works responded to a spill from a sewer force main at West Kingston Road and Marshall Lane at 7:30 a.m. Nov. 1. Operations supervisor John Gardner said the crew found a cracked PVC pipe and “gray water” was overflowing. The crew was able to stop the water from leaking by 8:30 a.m., but by then, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of sewage had drained along the curb, into a nearby catch basin, “which heads straight downhill to Appletree Cove,” Gardner said.

After three samples, Stuart Whitford, water pollution identification and correction program manager for Kitsap Public Health, said any bacteria remaining in the water is “back to where it should be.”

Whitford said the E. coli level standard should be no higher than 126 parts per 100 milliliters of water. The first sample, taken the day of the spill,  was 2,419 parts; the second, taken Nov. 7, was 1,046 parts; and the third sample, taken Nov. 13, was down to 80.1 parts.

Public Health will be removing the warning signs around the stream and Appletree Cove.

The crew cleaned up the immediate site the day of the spill. Gardner said that site is inspected every 30 days. The crack in the plastic pipe could have happened when the ground shifted, he said, and Public Works hasn’t had a spill of this magnitude in a long time.