Chief Sealth Students, Teachers Hosting World Water Week

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

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

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/.

Seattle To Preserve “Salmon in Schools” Education

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

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.

Duwamish Superfund Comment Period Extended

Aerial View of Duwamish River

The deadline for comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cleanup plan for the Duwamish River Superfund Site has been extended to Friday, January 14. Click here to learn more & comment on the Duwamish River Superfund cleanup.

The Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group (DRCC/TAG), the EPA, and other local governments hosted two very successful public meetings for the Superfund Feasibility Study (Cleanup Alternatives) on December 7th and 9th

DRCC and EPA worked with Concord International School for the December 7th meeting, and provided information in Spanish and English, with hands-on, small-group activities using Legos to illustrate the different cleanup choices.

December 9th was a more “traditional” public meeting, but also included a powerful video produced by local youth from the International District Housing Alliance’s Project WILD about their experiences interviewing Duwamish River fishermen. View their video here.

After hearing from the community representatives at workshops, through surveys, online, and in person, DRCC/TAG is proposing an additional cleanup alternative: #7

  • Cleanup Alternative #7 would clean up more of the river – it would aim to reduce chemical concentrations to “natural background” and provide better health protections for tribal and subsistence fishermen.
  • Cleanup Alternative #7 would include ongoing pollution source control, both along and upriver of the cleanup site, as an integral part of the alternatives described in the Feasibility Study.
  • Cleanup Alternative #7 would include an environmental justice assessment, to evaluate what the impact of chemicals left in the river would be on fishermen and others, and make that assessment part of the cleanup decision.

To view or download DRCC/TAG’s assessment of the cleanup alternatives, to to http://www.duwamishcleanup.org/uploads/FSassessment.pdf to download the PDF with the various options.

Background on this project: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a draft study of cleanup alternatives for the Duwamish River. Past and present activities have left a legacy of chemical pollution in the river and in the sediment (mud) at the bottom. This pollution comes from many sources, including industries along the river and stormwater runoff from upland activities, streets, and highways.
The Draft Feasibility Study describes a range of river cleanup options. It is being prepared by the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group (LDWG) – Boeing, King County, the City of Seattle, and the Port of Seattle. Click here to visit the EPA’s web site for an overview of the Duwamish Superfund site and link to their 8-page Fact Sheet on the cleanup alternatives.

You have a voice in determining how our river gets cleaned up. Please share your comments with us by Friday, January 14th: bj@duwamishcleanup.org or call 206-954-0218. Comments can also be sent directly to EPA at r10lowerduwamish@epa.gov

Legislative Workshop for Environmental Issues @ SPU

Interested in making a difference with the Legislature?

Fortunately, the 2011 Legislative Session is near and as we prepare for the upcoming session, the Environmental Priorities Coalition invites you to join them for the annual Environmental Priorities Coalition Legislative Workshop. The workshop is a fun way to come learn about the 2011 Environmental Priorities and how you can take action to help get them passed.

Here’s the details:

  • Environmental Priorities Coalition Legislative Workshop
  • When: Saturday, January 8th, 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM
  • Where: Seattle Pacific University, Gwinn Room
  • Cost: $20 with lunch, $10 without lunch, and $10 for students with lunch
  • environment

Experts will be on hand and a panel of our state legislators will be able to answer your questions about this year’s Environmental Priorities. There will also be break-out sessions on how to use social media to get your voice heard and be your own citizen lobbyist. Also, new this year, there will be a session on Activism 2.0, for folks who are ready to take their activism to the next level to help build the environmental movement.

Space is limited and already beginning to fill up. Register online today.

For more information contact Craig M. Benjamin, Communications Director, Environmental Priorities Coalition.

The Environmental Priorities Coalition consists of the following organizations:

  • American Rivers
  • Climate Solutions
  • Conservation NW
  • Earth Ministry
  • Environment Washington
  • Fuse
  • Futurewise
  • Heart of America Northwest
  • The Lands Council
  • League of Women Voters of Washington
  • Lutheran Public Policy Office
  • National Wildlife Federation
  • NW Energy Coalition
  • People for Puget Sound
  • Sierra Club Cascade Chapter
  • Surfrider Foundation
  • Transportation Choices Coalition
  • Washington Conservation Voters
  • Washington Environmental Council
  • Washington State Audubon
  • Washington Toxics Coalition
  • Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition
  • Zero Waste Washington
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Help Clean Up Duwamish: Cleanup Proposal Workshops Scheduled, Citizen Input Needed

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition invite your participation and need your help in reviewing the Draft River Cleanup Alternatives (Feasibility Study) prepared for the Duwamish Water Way Superfund site.  The Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition is also the Technical Advisory Group to the EPA for this site.

Click here to visit the EPA’s web site for an overview. View or download the EPA Fact Sheet about the 2nd Draft Duwamish River Cleanup Alternatives (Feasibility Study). If you’d like to peruse the entire cleanup plan, please start with the Executive Summary!

DRCC/TAG Technical Advisors have created an quick assessment of the cleanup alternatives, and will develop an environmental justice review and fact sheet for the public.

  • Preliminary Assessment of the cleanup alternatives (Available now!)
  • Fact Sheet (Coming at the end of November)

Learn more, and have your voice heard!

Community Public Meetings on Cleanup Alternatives

  • Help develop alternatives that protect human health.
  • Public meetings include Superfund cleanup alternatives overview presentation as part of the open house and public comment at the presentation stations and on paper; Spanish language translation will be available; Childcare will be available and there will be food provided.

Schedule for Public Meetings

  • Tuesday, December 7 – 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm: Concord International Elementary School in South Park at 723 S Concord St.  Spanish translation, childcare and food provided.
  • Thursday, December 9 –  5:30 pm to 8:30 pm:  South Seattle Community College Georgetown Campus at 6737 Corson Avenue S.  Spanish translation, childcare and food provided.

Combined Sewer Overflow Meeting @ Fauntleroy

Join King County Wastewater Division Monday, November 1, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Avenue SW, for a Special Community Meeting to discuss the possibility of using the  Lincoln Park South Parking Lot as a location for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) control.

This is a public meeting to discuss the new alternative proposed by the Murray Community Advisory Group for CSO control in West Seattle. King County has been working with the community in West Seattle since 2007 to develop a plan to control combined sewer overflows in Puget Sound. The Murray Community Advisory Group, or CAG, has recommended a water storage tank under the Lincoln Park south parking lot. King County needs to hear from the community as part of the process to evaluate this alternative.

King County has evaluated a number of alternatives for CSO control in West Seattle including upstream Green Stormwater Infrastructure, storage under the old Fauntleroy School or under Upper Fauntleroy Way near ferry dock, and several options near the Murray pump station: including private property across the street from Lowman Beach Park, under Beach Drive, and under Lowman Beach Park. This new alternative developed by the Murray CAG would directly impact Lincoln Park users and nearby neighbors. Come to this meeting to learn more and tell us what you think.

For more information and to learn more about King County’s proposals for CSO control in the Barton and Murray basins visit the project Web page at www.kingcounty.gov/CSOBeachProjects. You can also access the Community Advisory Group’s recommendation at that website.

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SPU Is Recruiting Community Advisory Members

Seattle Public Utilities is seeking diverse community members for their Community Advisory Committees.  More detail is online here.

SPU is seeking diverse candidates, especially from the HUB/WMBE businesses as well as community members from the Central and SE and SW sectors of the City.  Download the application form here.

SPU has three City-wide committees:

  • Creeks, Drainage and Wastewater Advisory Committee (CDWAC) (stormwater management, water quality, pollution prevention, creeks, wastewater systems, other topics)
  • Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) waste management systems policy: recycling, food/yard waste, collection contracts, transfer stations, garbage systems, waste prevention)
  • Water System Advisory Committee (WSAC) (drinking water system, water conservation, supply/demand, Cedar and Tolt Watersheds management, other topics)

Each of these committees is chartered by Seattle Public Utilities and reports directly to the Director, SPU.  For more information contact the program manager, Sheryl Shapiro, at 206-615-1443 or email at Sheryl.Shapiro@Seattle.Gov