SCHENECTADY — The rain poured down steadily all day Saturday, but not once did it overwhelm the city’s sewage treatment plant and force raw sewage into the Mohawk River.

“Five years ago, it would’ve happened,” said Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen, who was given the unenviable task in 2004 of tracking down every connection between sewage pipes and stormwater drains, as well as every crack in the sewer pipes that might let rain seep into the sewage. There were so many unmapped connections and unnoticed cracks that whenever it rained, sewage flow nearly tripled. The plant couldn’t handle that much liquid at once, and so workers opened the gate and let the sewage pour into the river, untreated.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation slapped the city with a consent order to address the situation. The city spent millions disconnecting sewer and stormwater pipes, but the rain kept slipping in.

Finally, last year, the city attacked the problem from the other direction: Rather than reducing the amount of rain entering the sewage, workers cleaned out a critical pipe that would allow the plant to handle more liquid at once. That job cost $600,500.

And just like that, the problem seems largely to have been solved.

Last Saturday, during the long storm, the sewage flow jumped from an average of 14 million gallons per day to more than 20 million gallons per day. In years past, that would have pushed the plant to the breaking point — at 23 million gallons per day, the plant operators had to open the gate to the river or let sewage explode out of the pipes, pushing away manhole covers and flooding certain streets.

This time, however, the plant was unaffected. It can now handle a flow maximum of 35 million gallons per day.

“I don’t think we’re done yet by any means,” Olsen said. “But we have significantly improved the performance of the collection system.”

DEC officials say they’re satisfied with the city’s efforts and have closed their consent order. The improvements at the plant have gone largely unnoticed by the public, but Olsen said Saturday’s storm would’ve drawn plenty of attention if the plant had been forced to open its gate.

Sewage could have backed up onto lower Jay Street, so the city would have closed the area just before the Little Italy Fest began.

“That would’ve put a real damper on the Italy Fest,” Olsen said.

Rain is still entering the city’s sewage system, and the city still has to open its gate at times. But the gate is opening less often, and for shorter periods of time, said former plant manager Paul LaFond, who now works for the city.

Earlier this year, a daylong storm hiked the city’s average sewage flow from 14 million gallons per day to 27 million gallons per day — well above the plant’s previous capacity. Thanks to the improvements, the gate didn’t have to be opened.

But as the storm went on into the night, the flow continued to rise. At 34 million gallons per day, just below the plant’s capacity of 35 million gallons, workers opened the gate.

“But we’re opening it less,” LaFond said, citing by comparison a storm on July 11, 2003. That storm, which was just a little worse than Saturday’s rain, forced the city to open its gate for four hours. The sewage flow maxed out at 26 million gallons per day — well below the plant’s current maximum. If that storm occurred again today, none of the raw sewage would leave the plant.

Olsen argued that the raw sewage that is released isn’t as much of a health concern as residents may fear. He noted that nearly two-thirds of the liquid is rainwater. “So it’s extremely diluted,” he said.

Nonetheless, DEC doesn’t want any of it in the river, which is used by boaters and swimmers and provides drinking water to many municipalities. Scientists also believe it recharges the aquifer.

“It’s not a good idea to have raw sewage enter the waterway,” DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said.

The agency allows the city to release raw sewage up to six times a year. The length of time the gate is opened doesn’t matter — any release counts against the six, Georgeson said.

This year, despite the improvements, the city has opened its gate six times already. LaFond said the weather was to blame.

Georgeson said that as long as the city doesn’t release raw sewage more than six times, DEC will have no complaints about the city’s system. But with the plant still reaching the maximum number of releases, Olsen plans to focus on keeping the rain out of the sewer pipes.

“The system is extremely old. The inflow is caused by cross-connections and joints in the pipes that are leaking. We have eliminated the vast majority of those cross-connections, and leaks would be a priority. We find those quickly now,” he said.

Last year, the city bought two robotic cameras that can be drawn through the pipes to determine where repairs are needed.

“That system plays a significant role,” Olsen said. “Obviously those improvements are beginning to show their effectiveness. I think it’s been improved. We still have work to do.”