Barton Basin Sewer Overflow Project Public Meeting

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King County Wastewater Treatment Division will be hosting a community meeting for Westwood and Sunrise Heights neighbors to discuss the Barton Basin CSO-GSI Project.

The meeting is Wednesday, April 6, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the Westside School, 7740 34th Avenue SW, the new name for the red-brick school one block east of 35th just south of SW Holden St.

Come  learn more about the proposed Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) project to control combined sewer overflows (CSO) at the Barton Pump Station near the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock.

This is the first of many opportunities for community participation and to learn more details about the project.  Meeting summaries will be posted on the following website – www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Construction/ Seattle/BeachCSO/MeetingCalendar.aspx

For more information, special accommodations, or if you are unable to attend the meeting and would like arrange a small group meeting, please contact Maryann Petrocelli 206-263-732

[mappress mapid=”331″]1, or maryann.petrocelli@kingcounty.gov.

Chief Sealth Students, Teachers Hosting World Water Week

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The first annual World Water week will take place the week of March 21-25 at Chief Sealth International High School. World Water Week will promote understanding of the relationship between members of our local community with water here and around the world, with the emphasis on improving that relationship through conservation and local action addressing equal access for all global citizens.

The week will consist of five days full of powerful speakers and engaging workshops for students, teachers and the community.

  • Monday, March 21st will feature an exciting keynote speaker, Robert Glennon). Glennon is a professor of law and public policy at the University of Arizona and is the author of the bestselling book, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and what to do about it. His talk will be preceded by personalized video message from Alexandra Cousteau, famed global water activist and filmmaker. Congressman Jay Inslee, as well as a representative from the Mayor’s office, will also be in attendance. Representatives from the Duwamish Tribe will attend the event and provide a blessing for World Water Week. Before the keynote lecture, there will be a water resource fair with tables from local government and non-profit organizations. There will also be some live music and refreshments. This event will be free and open to the public.
  • Tuesday night will be an evening event for Chief Sealth students and parents, with the focus on water and environmentally related career, college, and internship opportunities. There will be booths from many local colleges and organizations, as well as break-out sessions from environmental journalists and hopefully some green engineers.
  • Wednesday and Thursday will be made up of in-school workshops focused on raising awareness of our local water sources and the global water crisis.
  • Friday will be our big day. There will be no regular classes during school. There will be 4 “periods” plus lunch. Each grade level will participate in a water carrying (“Carry 5”) walk. Students (and staff) will carry 1-5 gallons of water around the track for a couple of miles. We will be simulating what over a billion people do every day to gather fresh water for their families. This whole event is actually the culmination of a month-long fundraiser that the school will be doing for Water 1st International. During the other three rotations on Friday, students and staff will sign up for workshop sessions. There will be several choices each hour. The day will conclude with an all school assembly where we will announce which grade raised the most money and conclude with a performance by a local band.

This festival is being organized by Chief Sealth senior Molly Freed, her teacher Noah Zeichner and a group of 50 Chief Sealth students and teachers, in collaboration with several local organizations. Last summer, the Bezos Family Foundation selected Freed and Zeichner as Bezos Scholars — two of only 24 across the nation — to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival. At the festival, scholars were directed to create their own local Ideas Festival, and Freed and Zeicher developed the idea of World Water Week.

For more information contact Noah Zeichner, Social Studies Teacher, Chief Sealth International High School, 2600 SW Thistle Street Seattle, WA 98126, or by phone at 206-252-8626  or check out the Chief Sealth International High School website.

NOAA Funding Watershed Education Teacher Training

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA – is funding Watershed Education Workshops for local teachers and community leaders and interested parties.

NOAA will host the Washington Watershed Education Teacher Training (a NOAA B-WET program) in Seattle, March 26  through 27, aboard the Indigo & at Duwamish Longhouse.  The training is aimed at K-12 teachers, community organizations, and government agencies.

It’s all free and there are  free credit/clock hours for teachers.  To register go to http://serviceeducationadventure.org/noaa.php for more information contact Amy Johnson at 425-640-1882.

The two day programming is aimed at teachers, pre-service teachers, community based organizations, and government agencies interested in issues surrounding the Puget Sound Waterways. SEA (Service, Education, Adventure) and the LEAF School (Learn and serve Environmental Anthropology Field School at Edmonds CC) are hosting a series of free marine based professional workshops funded by NOAA.

Using Bottled Water? Scorecard Gives Clues to 170 Brands

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The Environmental Working Group has published its 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard.

EWG’s 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard grades more than 170 bottled waters on the fullness of their disclosures on their labels and websites. Nine out of ten of the best-selling brands didn’t answer EWG’s basic questions:

  • Where does the water come from?
  • Is it purified? How?
  • Have tests found contaminants?

For more information check out the Environmental Working Group’s website – http://www.ewg.org/.

Public Meeting Set on New Seattle Shoreline Rules

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Join the City of Seattle for a discussion about what the new rules mean for you.

Will the new shoreline rules affect you? They could if you’re a waterfront homeowner or business owner, live on a boat, or play along Seattle’s shorelines. The Seattle Department of Planning and Development is hosting a public meeting to discuss the changes and answer your questions.

The meeting is Tuesday, March 8, from 5:30 pm to  7:30 pm in the Bertha Knight Landes Room at Seattle City Hall.  The presentation starts at 6:00 pm.

The proposed new regulations will cause these changes which might affect folks:

  • Increasing shoreline setbacks for new residential development
  • Changing requirements for new and replaced bulkheads, unless water threatens to undermine buildings
  • Clarifying the use of shorelines to support businesses
  • Improving public access to shorelines
  • Prohibiting additional, new floating homes
  • Continuing current regulations that maintain existing floating homes
  • Regulating the number of liveaboards at marinas

Detailed information about proposed regulation changes is available at: http://buildingconnections.seattle.gov/2011/02/09/seattle-shoreline-rules-to-change/. The draft regulations, director’s report, and supporting material are posted at: www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/ShorelineMasterProgramUpdate/

Public comments on the proposed Shoreline Master Program update, which regulates Seattle’s shorelines, are accepted through May 16, 2011. Please send your written comments to Margaret Glowacki at margaret.glowacki@seattle.gov. Written comments may also be submitted at the public meeting.

Seattle To Preserve “Salmon in Schools” Education

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The Salmon in Schools program, cut by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife last fall as part of the State’s 2010-2011 fiscal year budget reductions, will likely continue in Seattle schools.

Upon learning that Fish & Wildlife may no longer fund the statewide program, Seattle Council President Richard Conlin requested that Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) find a way to support the program for Seattle school children. SPU is offering additional support for the program at a cost of $10,000 per year through the Restore Our Waters program.

“Environmental stewardship starts young,” said Council President Richard Conlin. “Kids learn best by seeing and interacting with nature and wildlife. The Salmon in Schools program is a successful example of hands-on education. I had to do something to preserve this valuable resource, and I hope that other municipalities and organizations around the state will do the same.”

The Salmon in Schools program, established in 1991, is an educational project that encourages respect for our aquatic resources and promotes responsible behavior toward the environment. Large tanks and salmon eggs are provided to both public and private schools and students learn about the salmon lifecycle and the interrelationships between water quality and habitat issues by watching the salmon hatch and grow into fry. Eggs are provided by state and tribal hatcheries. The salmon are released into local streams after about 12 weeks. Statewide, an average of 495 schools participated each year, reaching 40,000 students. Approximately 50 of those schools are in Seattle.

In addition to supplying the eggs and providing and maintaining the tanks, Fish & Wildlife funding has supported administering the permits necessary to release the salmon into the streams. All schools raising salmon require permits and staffing the administration of these permits will need to be resolved for the program to continue.

Fish & Wildlife is exploring ways to continue the program with private or non-profit funding if the cuts become permanent, and in the meantime SPU has offered to assume the cost of maintaining the tanks used in Seattle schools. SPU will also continue partnering with local watershed groups, Seattle school district staff, and teachers to implement and maintain the educational component of the program.

“This program is an engaging way for youth to garner an understanding of the important connections between salmon and healthy waters,” said Ray Hoffman, Director of Seattle Public Utilities. For this year, salmon eggs have already been delivered to schools across the City and kids and grown-ups alike are excited to watch them hatch, grow and swim away down one of Seattle’s streams.

Hands-on Low Impact Development Workshop Scheduled

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Sustainable Seattle and EOS Alliance are partnering to provide a hands-on low impact development workshop.

The rain running off our roofs, roads and yards is the biggest source of pollution entering Puget Sound’s water. We all contribute to this pollution, and we can all help solve this problem by applying Low Impact Development techniques that slow the runoff down and treat the water. To help you learn about and apply LID on your own property, Sustainable Seattle, in partnership with EOS Alliance, is offering a workshop that combines a class about the benefits and types of LID with a hands-on experience building a rain garden or bioswale so you can exactly what is involved.

Saturday, February 26th will be the theory and background day. We will cover what sustainable design is, what it means to you and its context in the neighborhood, city, region, nation and planet, and its nexus with Low Impact Development, before going into more detail about site assessment and design.

Sunday, February 27th will be the hands-on day. Participants will have a chance to enter their own property into a drawing, the winner of which will be the work site for the rest of the day. We will visit the winning site to do an initial survey, design what to build there to improve its stormwater handling, and spend the rest of the day building what we have designed.

Thank you to EOS Alliance for partnering with us on this workshop.

To read more and register online, visit http://sustainableseattle.org/training/228

The schedule for the two days is below:

Saturday February 26

  • 10:30 am – noon: The first session will cover what sustainable design is, what it means to you and its context in the neighborhood, city, region, nation and planet, and its nexus with Low Impact Development.
  • 12 – 1:00 pm: Lunch and socialising. Bring a sack lunch and we’ll eat together.
  • 1:00 – 5:00 pm: Detailed discussion of Low Impact Design. Topics covered will include:
    • Site assessment
    • Soil analysis
    • Site hydrology
    • Site mapping & analysis
    • Site planning & layout
    • Site design

Sunday February 27

  • 9:00 am – noon: Optional site assessment field trip. We will have a drawing to pick a students house for the installation of a rain garden or other LID design solution. It is understood from the class syllabus that all those participating in the drawing will need to share in the cost and labor of building a rain garden. Participation in this is voluntary and is not part of the basic course syllabus. We will then arrange a field trip to that location for in field practice of site analysis and site planning based on the analysis principles learned.
  • 12 – 1:00 pm: Lunch indoors.
  • 1:00 – 5:00 pm: Construction. We will retrofit a class member’s house with a rain garden and/or bioswale. This is a hands-on physical exercise.

Location:

Vance Building, room 530

1402 Third Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

Closest transit station: University Street.

What to bring

Please dress comfortably, and bring paper, something to write with and a sack lunch for each day. Most of Sunday will be spent outdoors, so please bring rain gear, boots and work gloves if you have them.  We will provide tea, coffee and light snacks.

SWS Stormwater Group Meets Wednesday @ Uptown

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Our next stormwater meeting will be held Wednesday, February 9th, 7:30 to 9:00 pm at the Uptown Espresso in the Alaska Junction, corner of SW Edmunds St and California Ave. S

There is a letter of intent due February 14th for The Russell Family Foundation. A draft letter of intent has been prepared. The draft will be used to focus our discussion around our project execution strategy.

Parks Board Considers Run-off, Youth Involvement

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The Seattle Board of Park Commissioners will hold its next meeting at 7:00 pm Thursday, January 27, in the Park Board Room at 100 Dexter Ave. N at the corner of Dexter and Denny.

The meeting agenda includes:

  • Overview of the YMCA’s Get Engaged Program: proposal to change selection method for 7th Board member.
    • Parks staff will brief the Board on the YWCA’s Get Engaged Program, whose purpose is to get young people aged 18 to 29 placed on City boards and commissions that advise departments, help shape policy decisions, make recommendations, and provide opportunities to have a voice in city government. Parks is proposing a partnership with Get Engaged to identify a seventh member of the Board of Park Commissioners. Current City ordinance calls for nomination of three members by the Mayor, three by the City Council, and one by the other six. The selection of the seventh member has proven to be a cumbersome process, and Parks proposes to ask the City Council to amend the ordinance to provide for this method of selection.
  • Briefing on Seattle Public Utilities’ Genesee Area Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) projects.
    • Parks and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) staff will brief the Board on CSO projects in the Genesee area. Under the 2010 CSO Reduction Plan Amendment, an update to the City of Seattle’s plan for reducing overflows from the combined sewer system into surrounding surface waters, SPU aims to identify projects or programs that will limit untreated overflows at each CSO outfall to an average of no more than one per year, a performance standard established in the City’s CSO National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. When complete, the projects will enable the City to capture 99% of combined sewer volume from the combined sewer system during storm events. SPU has identified some Parks properties as possible sites for CSO projects in the Genesee Basins. The briefing will focus on the Genesee projects, which involve use of park land at two locations on Lake Washington Boulevard.
  • Briefing on proposed Supplemental Use Guidelines for downtown parks.
    • Parks staff will brief the Board on proposed new Supplemental Use Guidelines for downtown parks. The guidelines will provide direction on what activities will provide a mix of active and passive use for the workers, residents, and visitors who use the parks. The policy covers City Hall Park, Freeway Park, Hing Hay Park, Occidental Square, Piers 62/63, Victor Steinbrueck Park, Waterfront Park, and Westlake Park. It encourages park uses consistent with Parks’ new direction for downtown parks, based on the work of the Center City Task Force: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/projects/downtown.asp. Parks is working to provide for more positive activities and entertainment in these parks to make them feel safer and more inviting. The policy would supersede old supplemental use guidelines for Market (Steinbrueck) Park, Freeway Park, Occidental Park, and Waterfront Park.
    • The Board will hold a public hearing on these proposed Supplemental Use Guidelines for Downtown Parks at its February 10 meeting, followed by a discussion and recommendation to the Superintendent at its February 24 meeting.

Briefing papers on each of these three topics will be available online at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkboard/.

The Board of Park Commissioners is a seven-member citizen board created by the City Charter. Three members are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council; three members are appointed by the City Council; and one member is appointed by the Park Board. The Board meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month to advise the Parks and Recreation Superintendent, the Mayor, and the City Council on parks and recreation matters. For more information, please contact Sandy Brooks at 206-684-5066 or sandy.brooks@seattle.gov.

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SWS Stormwater Group To Meet Jan. 26 @ Uptown

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The next Sustainable West Seattle stormwater meeting will be held Wednesday, January 26th, 7:30 to 9:00 pm at the Uptown Espresso at the corner of SW Edmunds St. and California Avenue SW, one block south of Alaska Junction.

This meeting is the  RESCHEDULED from the previously-scheduled  Jan. 19 date discussed at the last meeting and is due to conflicts with other SWS meetings.