PORT ANGELES — Repair of a breach in the city’s main sewer line is expected to begin at low tide this morning. The broken line has been spilling millions of gallons of effluent into Port Angeles Harbor since Monday morning.
The Port Angeles sewer system should be operating correctly again by early evening today, after the break at Pump Station 4 near Front and Cherry streets is fixed and the filtration system recharged, said city officials Tuesday.
Parts ordered from Seattle at a cost of $11,000, arrived in Port Angeles Tuesday night.
Work could not resume on the broken sewer line until the next low tide at 7:34 a.m., said Mike Puntenney, deputy director of operations for the city of Port Angeles.
State Department of Ecology spokeswoman Sandy Howard, said Tuesday that once the pipe itself is fixed, the sewer plant will need some time to begin operating again.
When a sewer treatment plant stops treating sewage the “bugs’ that break down the sewage die off and must be replaced before the plant begins accepting sewage again, she said.
