Mouth of Duwamish Wet Weather Facilities

King County is working on an effort called the Mouth of Duwamish Wet Weather Facilities that will reduce overflows from 5 combined sewer outfalls where the Duwamish River meets Elliott Bay.

We are evaluating options that control combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to comply with environmental laws. The CSOs were designed many decades ago to be overflow relief points in our sewer system during periods of heavy rain. Today, to better protect local water bodies, King County is investing in solutions to limit the number of overflows that occur and to ensure we are meeting regulatory requirements to protect water quality.

What we’re doing

King County is working to control 5 CSO outfalls in the area of the mouth of the Duwamish River. The outfalls (called Chelan, Hanford #2, Lander, Kingdome, and King Street) are located in the east and west waterways of the Duwamish River on both sides of Harbor Island and along the Seattle shoreline of Elliott Bay in the neighborhoods of SODO and West Seattle (Industrial District West). This work fulfills legal requirements (called a consent decree) we have with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

King County has made great progress in controlling CSO outfalls in Puget Sound and other local water bodies. As of 2023, we've controlled 18 outfalls to reduce overflows to reduce pollution into local water bodies. But our work is not done yet. Controlling CSO outfalls at the mouth of the Duwamish River represents a large portion of the remaining CSO outfalls we strive to control.

The Mouth of Duwamish Wet Weather Facilities is one of the most complex efforts we will undertake. The effort will help King County be a good environmental steward by improving water quality. We must control CSO overflows and limit pollution to Duwamish River and Elliott Bay to do our part in creating healthy water bodies where communities and wildlife thrive.

About combined systems and CSOs 

Much of Seattle was built using a combined sewer system. Combined sewer systems carry sewage and stormwater in the same pipe. They prevent sewer backups in homes, businesses, and streets during heavy rain. When heavy rains fill the pipes, CSO outfalls release stormwater and sewage into local water bodies.

Today, King County is modernizing a system that’s been in place for more than a century to ensure sustainable operations into the future by investing in more wet weather facilities. Since our CSO Control Program began in the 1980s, we’ve reduced the average CSO discharge volume from an estimated 2.3 billion gallons to about 1 billion gallons per year. Controlling CSO outfalls at the mouth of the Duwamish River represents a large portion of the remaining CSO outfalls we strive to control.