Category Archives: News

Murray Basin (Lowman Beach Park) Overflow Meeting Tonight

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King County Wastewater Division has established a stakeholder group for discussing the options for the Combined Sewer Overflow project for the Murray Basin – located presently at Lowman Beach Park.  The proposals include some options which would necessarily have a huge and negative impact on Lowman Beach Park.  The stakeholder group, the Murray Basin Community Advisory Group, has been addressing these issues and concerns and is expected to work with the County to produce recommendations by the end of September.

All  Murray Basin Community Advisory Group meetings are open to the public to observe discussions. Info to date can be found at http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/construction/seattle/beachcso/basins/murray/cag.aspx

The mission of the group is to:

  • Provide a forum for dialog and information sharing;
  • Consult with representatives of the community on the selection of a community acceptablealternative or suite of alternatives to reduce Combined Sewer Overflow episodes;
  • Provide advice, as community representatives, on potential solutions and ways to address community concerns and to advise King County on CSO solutions in the Murray basin;
  • Help King County make a stronger connection with the community;
  • Help King County provide information to the community so community memberscan provide meaningful input, help the County solve the serious problems of combined sewer overflows, and help the County reach a reasonable andtechnically feasible solution.

King County Natural Resources Seminar on Stormwater

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King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Water and Land Resources Division is hosting another in their series of SciFYI science seminars.  This one’s on Stormwater and all that entails including monitoring and plans for rivers and streams and floodplain monitoring.  This seminar takes place at the King County King Street Center at 201 South Jackson Street, in the 8th floor conference room from 8:00 am through Noon.

The format includes two sessions followed by a panel discussion:

  • Session I: Stormwater Monitoring – Moderator: Doug Navetski
    • 8:10-8:30am Puget Sound Stormwater Monitoring Work Group Update, Jim Simmonds
    • 8:30-8:50am Preliminary Results of NPDES Stormwater Permit Monitoring, Dean Wilson
    • 8:50-9:10am A Fecal Pollution and Correction Program in Kitsap County, Mindy Fohn
    • 9:10-9:30am Theo Foss Waterway Source Control Strategy, Dana de Leon
    • 9:30-9:50am Storm Drain and Combined Sewer Overflow Source Evaluations in the Duwamish Waterway Drainage Basin, Debra Williston and Beth Schmoyer
  • Break (9:50-10:00am)
  • Session II: WLRD Monitoring – Moderator: Jo Wilhelm
    • 10:00-10:20am Monitoring Salmon Recovery in WRIA 8, Scott Stolnack
    • 10:20-10:40am Status of King County Streams, Deb Lester
    • 10:40-11:00am Framework and Status of Regulatory Effectiveness Monitoring, Gino Lucchetti
    • 11:00-11:20am Development of a Monitoring Framework for the River and Floodplain Management Section, Sarah McCarthy
    • 11:20-11:40am An Overview of the CIP Monitoring and Maintenance Program’s Approach to Monitoring – Past and Present, Dan Eastman
  • Panel Discussion – Moderator: Josh Latterell
    • 11:40am-12:00pm Speakers et al

For more information:

Help SPU with Combined Sewer Overflow Plans

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Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is seeking community members who would like to serve on a Sounding Board to help guide the development of a long-term plan (LTCP) to control Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in the City of Seattle. The Clean Water Act requires that Seattle reduce CSOs. Seattle Public Utilities is developing a comprehensive Long-term Control Plan (LTCP) to lay out the capital investments necessary to meet that goal.

These actions will include retrofitting the system for greater efficiency, building storage facilities, and green stormwater infrastructure where appropriate. The Sounding Board will provide a diverse set of perspectives from across the City. SPU is seeking individuals who can see the big picture, as well as effectively represent a particular point of view and provide constructive advice about important investment decisions. Further, SPU is hoping to identify people from each quadrant of the city (northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest) to represent interests in those geographic areas.

Sounding Board members will be asked to:

  • Quickly develop an understanding of the data and rationale for projects
  • Assist in developing and applying criteria to make decisions about the best alternatives
  • Review and comment on the elements of the LTCP
  • Provide guidance on public involvement activities and communications designed to engage stakeholders throughout the development of the LTCP

The first series of Sounding Board meetings will be from May to early July, 2010, with a meeting held about every other week. The meetings will resume in the fall with another set of meetings and then again in early 2011.

If you are interested in being considered as a member of the Sounding Board, please send an e-mail to CSO Program Public Involvement Coordinator Susan Stoltzfus (susan.stoltzfus@seattle.gov) by April 2, 2010. Please include “Sounding Board” in the subject line and include your name, address, and phone number. Provide a brief description (2-4 paragraphs) that includes: 1) your background, 2) your current affiliations and how you would represent your quadrant of the city, and 3) why you are interesting in taking part. Please feel free to contact Susan if you have questions or would like to suggest others who may want to be considered.

Sightline Publishes Simple Rainwater Garden DIY Instructions

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Sightline has published a simple set of instructions for Do-It-Yourself rain gardens. Rain barrels, French drains and swales are all terms depicting a way to capture runoff. Green solutions to stormwater runoff sound fancy and complicated, but they’re not.

The basic principal for controlling stormwater in an Earth-friendly way is to keep the water where it falls and help it soak into the ground. Homeowners can do this by following any or all of the low-impact development strategies highlighted in this Sightline guide http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2010/03/08/stormwater-diy published online.

Duwamish Superfund Site 5-year Review Completed

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Seattle, Feb 14, 2010 – In September the Environmental Protection Agency completed their second five-year review for the Pacific Sound Resources site (the Duwamish Superfund area). The review identified follow-up work which is planned for the next five years, including:

  • Revising EPA’s 1999 cleanup decision based on a better understanding of standards needed for long-term protection of ground water, surface water, and sediment (mud).
  • Gathering information to see whether contamination is entering Elliott Bay.
  • Adding more clean material to the sediment cap in the deepest water at the site.
  • Working with the U.S. Coast Guard to protect the cap by restricting use of large commercial boat anchors.
  • Evaluating indoor air quality at a maintenance building.

Contact Ravi Sanga (sanga.ravi@epa.gov) at 206-553-4092 or Cindy C. Schuster (schuster.cindy@epa.gov) or 206-553-1815 for more information. Hard copies are available for review at the EPA Region 10 Superfund Records Center in Seattle.

Or, you can review most of the material at the EPS’s Puget Sound Resources webpage http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/cleanup.nsf/sites/PSR/.

Editor’s Note:  This was originally published late 2009 but is worth re-publishing because of the ongoing commitment to the Duwamish River Cleanup.