Discovery Park beaches reopen after sewage spill

Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM People wade during low tide at Discovery Park in Seattle on April...

SEATTLE -- It's now safe to go back into the water at Discovery Park. The beach was closed all weekend after a massive sewage spill in the Puget Sound.

The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks said they needed three consecutive days of good test results in order to give the "all clear."

Discovery Park was just one of the many beaches closed over the weekend because of high levels of bacteria in the water.

"Honey, the water is bad. It has bad things. It might make you sick," said Barbara Carmichael.

That's how Carmichael described the sewer spill to her grand kids.

Power outages at the two largest sewer plants in King County last week caused millions of gallons of storm water to spill into Puget Sound. Twenty percent of that was wastewater, which includes poop from your homes.

Experts said the sewage never approached extreme levels. Even still, they decided the close the beaches all weekend to exercise an abundance of caution.

"Well, we just have to be prepared for anything, and I just need to do my research more," said Emily Kuhl.

Kuhl brought her two kids Monday to Matthews Beach in northeast Seattle.

That's where swimming is currently banned because of a separate bacteria problem. In fact, there are multiple beaches in Lake Washington that are closed due to the same issue.

Beaches with high bacteria levels get tested twice a week to see if they're safe.

"I really really really wanted to go swimming, but we came here and we were really disappointed because we couldn't swim," said seven-year-old Lucy Kuhl.

The Washington Department of Ecology said there's an unusually high number of beach closures this summer.

If you want to check which beaches are still closed in King County, click here.

The east shore of Bainbridge Island and the Indianola area on the Kitsap Peninsula also reopened Monday. It was closed this weekend due to the sewer problem in Puget Sound.

This story first appeared on KOMO NEWS.