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Much of the treated wastewater King County dumps into the Puget Sound will continue to violate state clean water standards for months, King County officials said Thursday, following severe rains that damaged a sewage plant.

Related: Video of raw sewage overflowing into Elliott Bay

Flooding at the West Point treatment plant in Seattle鈥檚 Magnolia neighborhood has reduced the plant’s operation to 50 percent. The plant currently does not have adequate capacity to perform state-mandated secondary treatment of the tens of millions of gallons of wastewater and raw sewage that pass through it daily.

鈥淲e鈥檙e weeks out on getting it back up and running but I don鈥檛 have a good estimate on that right now,鈥� 聽said Mark Isaacson, the county鈥檚 wastewater treatment director.

Isaacson said the damage to the plant — service corridors filled with 10 feet of water at the height of the storm — was considerable.

鈥淚f I could employ every electrician in the country, I鈥檇 do it,” he said.

Seattle’s stormwater and sewage system was designed decades ago. The system eventually combines both sewage and stormwater into one pipe. When heavy rains hit Seattle, the system can be overwhelmed.

Untreated wastewater

Since the most recent severe rains began on Feb. 9, more that 260 million gallons of untreated wastewater have flowed into the Sound from the West Point plant. Considerably more has dumped into the sound during 14 hours of additional flooding between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, but the county hasn鈥檛 yet been able to assess that amount.

Related: Seattle is boring tunnel under Ballard, Wallingford and Fremont to correct sewage overflow problem

The West Point plant when fully operational can process 450 million gallons of wastewater each day. Most winter days it processes considerably less, in the neighborhood of 145 million gallons. But record rains can overwhelm the facility and the county lacks enough capacity to divert the additional flow. So a portion of it 鈥� in this case millions of gallons 鈥� ends in in the Sound in the form of raw sewage.

A spokesperson with state Department of Ecology said the state is monitoring West Point and that its current crippled operation 鈥� regardless of rainfall 鈥� won鈥檛 be able treat water well enough for state standards.

Isaacson agreed.

鈥淲e鈥檝e reported and have been working with the Department of Ecology since the morning of the 9^th when this started,鈥� Isaacson said. 鈥淭hey are well aware what鈥檚 going on.

鈥淭hey have the potential to fine us. I am sure they will review our work.鈥�

More rain is expected in coming days.

Seattle and King County were both fined in 2016 for other sewage overflows into the area’s bodies of water.