West Seattle, Washington
07 Tuesday
The city estimates up to 18,000 Seattle homes still use oil heat, and just announced a plan to try to reduce that number. From the announcement just sent:
To help combat the global climate crisis and fulfill a key commitment of Seattle’s 2018 Seattle Climate Strategy, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced today her plan to speed up the conversion of Seattle’s homes that burn oil for heat to cleaner electric heating.
Oil heat is the least efficient, most expensive, and most polluting form of home heating in Seattle. Converting Seattle homes to highly efficient electric heat pumps is another step to help Seattle become carbon neutral by 2050.
Mayor Durkan is transmitting legislation to City Council that if enacted would 1) impose a tax on heating oil starting July 1, 2020 on heating oil providers and 2) a requirement for heating oil tank owners to decommission or upgrade all existing underground oil tanks by 2028. Revenue from the tax will provide rebates and grants for Seattle homeowners to energy efficient electric heat pumps. ..
The tax of $0.24/gallon will fund rebates and grants for nearly 3,000 households to help them make the switch. Low-income homeowners will be fully refunded for the upgrade costs; approximately 1,000 low-income households are estimated to be eligible for a fully funded conversion. …
There are as many as 18,000 oil-heated homes in the City of Seattle. Converting those homes to clean electricity is expected to reduce Seattle’s climate emissions by 433,000 metric tons over 10 years. That is the equivalent of taking nearly 90,000 passenger cars off the road for a year. …
A typical 500-gallon oil tank costs a household $1,700 per year. An electric heat pump is more than twice as efficient as an oil furnace and a conversion from oil would save the average household about $850 every year compared to oil heat systems.
Most of Seattle’s oil heat tanks were installed between the 1920s and 1950s and are now an increasing liability as the steel tanks deteriorate, causing oil to leak and damage soil, property, and potentially ground water.
City of Seattle departments including Office of Sustainability and Environment, Seattle Fire Department and Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, will be directed to develop the criteria and plan for old oil tanks by July 1, 2020.
In addition to supporting conversion to energy efficient heat pumps, the proposed legislation also supports workforce development for workers in the oil heating industry. A portion of the tax revenue will support workforce training and business planning support for affected heating oil service providers.
On Saturday, we reported on the King County Wastewater Treatment Division‘s announcement of a 200-to-400-gallon sewage leak that resulted in warning signs along part of the Fauntleroy shoreline. We checked back with KCWTD spokesperson Norm Mah today to see if the warning was still in effect. Short answer: Yes. Longer: “The beach is not closed, a limited area around the vault located in the southernmost end of the park along the beach trail has been cordoned off to public access. Signs remain posted advising the public to avoid contact in the area out of an abundance of caution. We are still conducting water quality sampling in the area that is posted. Water quality tests are done until there are two consecutive days below the state threshold.” KCWTD blamed the overflow on “a leaking pressure relief valve on the Barton Pump Station pipeline that travels through Lincoln Park.”
10:17 AM: Just in from King County Wastewater Treatment Division:
King County Wastewater Treatment Division is investigating a leaking pressure relief valve on the Barton Pump Station pipeline that travels through Lincoln Park located in West Seattle that resulted in a small sewer overflow.
Signs have been posted advising the public to avoid contact in the area located in the southern-most end of the park along the beach trail north of the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock. King County dispatched a crew to clean up the site and water quality testing will be done throughout the weekend. The overflow has been reported to health and regulatory agencies.
We have followup questions about the size/volume of the overflow and the stretch of shore affected, since there’s a stretch of private shoreline north of the dock, as well as little Cove Park, before you get to the south end of Lincoln Park. We’re also headed out to look for signage/work crews.
11:25 AM: No reply yet, but we did find a “stay out of the water” sign at Cove Park; photo added above.
1:03 PM: From KCWTD spokesperson Norm Mah: “The estimate is between 200-400 gallons, most of which was cleaned up by a vactor (vacuum) truck last night. Some of it was within the vault that houses the valves.”
(Photo by Jamie Kinney, from early July)
Now that we’re back in a multi-day stretch of warm, dry weather, there’s a chance – especially in light of algae blooms like the one shown above – that “the stench” could recur along West Seattle’s west-facing shores. Fauntleroy-residing writer Judy Pickens shares some backstory and coping strategies:
After a seven-year hiatus, the summer “stench” was back in 2018 and is again evident to residents near Fauntleroy Cove and along Beach Drive. Sea lettuce is flourishing with heat from the sun and ample nutrients in the water and, when the green mats dry on the beach at low tide, they give off hydrogen sulfide gas.
First documented in the early 1980s, the noxious gas can irritate eyes, cause headaches, and even prompt vomiting. Heavy and colorless, it can persist in basements and other low-lying sites.
After years of seeking relief at local and state levels, the Fauntleroy Community Association gained an understanding of the situation but little more, including why we had no stench for those seven years. Now the State Department of Ecology has a unit monitoring algae blooms and accepting reports.
Here are precautions to take if you turn out to be in the stench zone:
*Avoid being outdoors and close windows and doors an hour or so either side of low tide.
*Use a large fan to clear the air in bedrooms before retiring for the night.
If the stench is especially strong, leave home for a few hours if you can.
Apparently trash pickup is a hot-button issue for Mayor Jenny Durkan. Though District 1 City Councilmember Lisa Herbold couldn’t get the mayor to make a statement promising fireworks enforcement, today she found herself the recipient of an unsolicited terse letter from the mayor right before Herbold’s committee revisited the idea of every-other-week trash pickup:
In the letter, which we requested and obtained from the mayor’s office after hearing it mentioned during the meeting, Durkan declared, “I believe that garbage should be picked up every week in every part of the city and do not support any efforts at reducing service levels to the people of Seattle.” Among other concerns, she noted that households of color and households with lower income were among those most displeased with the 2012 pilot in four city neighborhoods (including part of Highland Park).
Today’s briefing – previewed here yesterday – was not connected to any formal proposal to change service levels; Herbold said she thought it was worth talking about as the city tries to find more ways to meet environmental goals, with some other cities having success in going to every other week. Another of the councilmembers present, Mike O’Brien, lamented that Seattleites have stalled in progress toward a zero-waste/reduced-emissions future, and admitted he had not been pushing much for change in recent years. But the mayoral hammer hung heavy in the air as the meeting ended on a note of frustration as much as anything else, with Herbold wondering, “if not this, then what?”
Thanks to Jamie Kinney for the aerial views of an algae bloom off Fauntleroy.
The state Ecology Department tracks these blooms and wants to hear about it if you spot one. Ecology also produces a periodic report on serial and surface surveys of the Sound (here’s the latest report).
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The weekend began with a big volunteer show of support at Alki Beach. If only the trash they picked up hadn’t been left behind in the first place! The photos and report are from David Hutchinson with Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network:
The “Sentinels of the Sound” Alki Beach cleanup Saturday morning was a great success. Over 80 volunteers showed up at the Alki Statue of Liberty before spreading out to remove litter from the beach and Park. When they returned, the material they collected was weighed and bagged for disposal. Seal Sitters would like to thank Seattle Parks & Recreation and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance for providing the cleanup supplies.
Seattle Parks and concerned Alki residents always work hard to keep the area clean but a good amount of litter was removed during the 2½ hour event. This included over 100 pounds of trash and hundreds of cigarette butts as well as a discarded insulin syringe.
Volunteers from the sponsoring groups, Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network, SR3 and Sno-King Marine Mammal Response, staffed display tables, talked with and answered questions from passersby.
Just a quick reminder, harbor seal pupping season is now underway in our area, so if you come across a vulnerable pup (or any marine mammal) on a West Seattle beach, please call Seal Sitters’ Hotline at 206-905-7325.
(WSB photos)
10:57 AM: You have a little more than two hours left to get to the West Seattle Junction Association lot off 42nd SW south of SW Oregon and drop off recyclables and shreddables, courtesy of the WSJA and partners. On-site service providers include, as listed on the WSJA event-info page, Friendly Earth, Goodwill, Seadrunar Recycling (two shredding trucks – hosted by Junction Windermere) and Styro Recycle. Partners include Waste Management, there with one of its quieter new alternative-fuel-powered trucks:
Here’s WM’s list of what will and won’t be accepted. Entrance to the lot is off 42nd. Organizers told us people were waiting even before the event began at 9!
2:59 PM: WSJA executive director Lora Radford tells WSB they counted 481 participants in today’s event!
One more reminder that tomorrow – Saturday, June 29th – is your day for free recycling and/or shredding, courtesy of the West Seattle Junction Association and partners. Just drive up, ride up, walk up to the parking lot off 42nd SW south of SW Oregon, 9 am-1 pm. Two shredding trucks will be there, plus a variety of recycling options, including Goodwill donations (but please be sure those items are in good working order and resellable). Full details, including what you can and can’t bring to the event, are on this webpage.
Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network and friends hope you will join them on Saturday:
This coming Saturday morning, June 29th, from 9:30 AM – noon, Seal Sitters, along with Sno-King Marine Mammal Response and SR3, will be sponsoring our annual beach cleanup at Alki. We will be meeting at the Alki Statue of Liberty (61st Ave SW & Alki Ave SW) [ Map ]. There will be a brief introduction by Kate Melges, highlighting her work with Greenpeace on ocean plastics and microfibers.
Supplies will be provided by Seattle Parks & Recreation and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. For additional details, check this announcement on Seal Sitters’ Blubberblog: Sentinels of the Sound beach cleanup.
While we are requesting an RSVP to ensure we have enough supplies, please feel free to drop by to visit our display tables and help out. RSVP to SealSitters.Outreach (at) msn (dot) com
Got stuff to recycle and/or shred? Another big opportunity is just days away – the West Seattle Junction Association sends the reminder of Saturday’s event in the parking lot off 42nd south of SW Oregon. From WSJA executive director Lora Radford:
Reuse and Recycle in the Junction this Saturday from 9 AM to 1 PM. We’ll have two shredding trucks this year, supported by Windermere. Plus we’ll have the usual array of recyclers ready to take items from Styrofoam to the usual array of electronics.
We’ll offer drive up and walk-up areas on the 42nd Ave parking lot. We are giving a reminder, the items for the Goodwill should be in good working order and be ready for resale.
In other words – if something’s in really bad shape and not recyclable, this isn’t the place to dump it. This is all FREE to thanks to the sponsors and partners, listed on the webpage where you’ll find more about what they will and won’t take.
Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Ongoing efforts to clean up contamination in and along the Duwamish River took center stage Tuesday night at a community open house featuring several groups and agencies involved with the various multi-year projects.
The event, which we previewed here, was held at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) on the Georgetown campus, and featured representatives from the Washington Department of Ecology (including Tamara Cardona-Marek, pictured above welcoming attendees), the Environmental Protection Agency and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition.
The open house focused on six Lower Duwamish cleanup sites (pictured on the map below), three of which are now in the “open comment” period for public input (one of those periods ends Friday noon):
Wondering how the current cleanups in/near the Duwamish River are going? Your next opportunity to talk wih groups and agencies is at a Community Open House event on Tuesday at the Georgetown campus of South Seattle College (6737 Corson Ave. S.), 5:30-7:30 pm. Here’s the announcement:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology, together with the Community Advisory Group, the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC/TAG), will hold a Community Open House for the public to learn about the current work that Ecology and EPA are doing to clean up contamination in and adjacent to the Lower Duwamish Waterway. You will learn also about the upcoming public comment periods and how to participate.
The open house will feature information on the following sites:
Boeing Developmental Center
Boeing Plant 2
Snopac Property
8801 E Marginal WayIt will also feature information on the overall sediment cleanup (led by EPA) and Source Control (led by Ecology).
The meeting will be open-house format in which you can talk with members from Ecology and EPA working on individual sites.
Families are welcome; Spanish, Vietnamese, and Khmer interpretation will be available.
We’re at the “big bridge” on Fauntleroy Creek – walk in through Fauntleroy Park, off Barton (here’s a map) – where Fauntleroy Watershed Council volunteers welcome you until 3 pm. It’s the coda to another busy Salmon in the Schools release season, and a chance for a hands-on moment – and/or close-up look at – one of the city’s few salmon-supporting creeks. Volunteer Dennis Hinton tells us they brought 102 fry, so plenty for all – beautiful day in the park!
Shredding events are always popular, so we do our best to share the announcements as soon as we get them. Just got word that John L. Scott Westwood (WSB sponsor) is presenting free shredding one week from tomorrow – Saturday, June 15th, 10 am-noon in the northwest parking lot at Westwood Village (2600 SW Barton). Bring a nonperishable food donation for the White Center Food Bank. See the event flyer here.
As first reported four weeks ago, the city has proposed a West Seattle site for a public fast-charging station for electric vehicles, on 39th SW south of SW Oregon, alongside West Seattle Bowl. The survey linked in our original story is open through tomorrow and Seattle City Light‘s Julie Moore suggested we remind you in case you hadn’t responded yet. Our May 3rd report has all the backstory, including this SCL one-sheet. Ready to answer the survey? Find it here.
P.S. We never got around to an earlier planned followup with Moore’s answers to questions that came up in the comment discussion following the original story – so here they are:
Head-in or back-in parking: Seattle City Light would be seeking head-in parking for these stalls as many EVs have charge ports in the front of the vehicle.
Charging costs and installation costs: The rate for charging an EV at City Light chargers, $0.43 per kilowatt hour (kWh), is designed to recover the investment.
ADA accessibility: These comments are valuable feedback for consideration of this proposal. At the same time, as one commenter noted, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is looking to install ADA parking spots along this block of 39th Avenue Southwest. More information about those efforts can be found here.
(WSB photo from June 2018 recycle/reuse/shred event)
If you missed one or both of the recent West Seattle shredding and recycling events – good news – the West Seattle Junction Association is presenting a recycle/reuse event, with shredding, on June 29th! Like the one last year, it’ll be in the Junction parking lot off 42nd SW south of SW Oregon. Just show up between 9 am and 1 pm – after consulting the list of what will and won’t be accepted.
(Photo by Kersti Muul)
Two reports of reddish-orange water in Puget Sound along West Seattle shores mean it’s time for the annual reminder of what this is: An algae bloom, usually Noctiluca. Though it’s nontoxic, and it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s not benign, as the state Department of Ecology noted in this post last year – “An increase in the abundance of Noctiluca is an indication of an unbalanced system, and while the plankton is not toxic itself, their presence creates a cascade of effects in the marine food web.” Excess nutrients are a big part of the imbalance; here’s more on that.
(WSB photo, 4/28/2019)
Another spring tradition for unburdening yourself of unwanted-but-reusable items: Fauntleroy Church‘s Recycle Roundup. The most recent one happened two weeks ago; Judy Pickens reports today that participants were part of a record:
The spring recycle roundup at Fauntleroy Church is always a busy one as people clean house or prepare to move. The April 28 roundup at Fauntleroy Church proved to be especially so as a record 540 vehicles came through to leave the crew from 1 Green Planet the biggest haul of recyclables yet with – 16.54 tons. Total weight going back to the resource stream since the roundups began in 2010 is 248.7 tons. The fall roundup is set for Sunday, Sept. 22.
The photo is from Mark, who asked us Thursday about the “contaminated water” signage that he spotted along Longfellow Creek at the SW Yancy footbridge near the West Seattle Athletic Club. Researching it today, we first checked with Seattle-King County Public Health, whose logo was on the signage. They said it was related to “a small sewage spill (about 100 gallons) at the West Seattle Golf Course. Our understanding is that the spill had gone into a catch basin and some likely spilled into Longfellow Creek,” and that Seattle Public Utilities had put up the signage. SPU told us, “Approximately 100 gallons were released on Wednesday evening, but it was determined that most of the spill was absorbed into the soil,” so the signage on the creek was removed.
As we showed you earlier this week, it’s salmon-release season at Fauntleroy Creek – part of the annual lifecycle since community advocacy led to work that brought the creek back to life. Part of it remains underground, carried in culverts, and some sections need to be replaced, so Seattle Public Utilities is in the early stages of figuring out how. Back in March, SPU offered opportunities to offer early-stage comments. If you missed those, it’s not too late to comment – SPU reopened its online survey seeking your opinion. As the (short) survey explains:
Design options present tradeoffs. This includes the opportunity to enhance creek habitat with open channel sections. However, these features require retaining walls and potential realignment that can have greater short-term construction impacts, as well as require long-term changes to existing site conditions.
So they’re asking about your priorities – when you can spare a moment or two to comment, go here. (Background info from the March open house is here.)
From the “early alert” file – King County sent this alert. Not even at the meeting stage yet, but in case you like to be in the loop as early as possible:
King County Wastewater Treatment Division is in the planning stages of a project that could result in some construction along Beach Drive in about two years – 2021.
The goal of the project is to improve standby power for the Alki CSO Treatment Plant located at 3380 Beach Dr SW and the 63rd Ave Pump Station, located at 3535 Beach Drive SW. The Alki CSO Treatment Plant operates during heavy rainfall and the 63rd Ave Pump Station is designed to send wastewater flows to Alki. Having a reliable source of standby power will reduce the number of overflows of stormwater combined with wastewater from the pump station. We are still developing alternatives for the power source.
If you would like to stay informed as the project develops, please send your email address to caryn.sengupta@kingcounty.gov.
If you can’t quite place it – the CSO plant is the big facility right across from Constellation Park, south of Alki Point. The county operates four facilities of this type.
ADDED 2:30 PM: We also note that there are some early-stage filings about this in the city system – you can follow the project here. We have substituted the early-stage site plan atop this story, replacing the county file photo with which this was originally published.
(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
Every spring, salmon fry like these are released into Fauntleroy Creek with the hopes of students, educators, and volunteers swimming right along next to them. Today, these were the first school-raised fry of the year to be set free. And the occasion brought another first:
Fifth-graders from Louisa Boren STEM K-8 are the first at their school to participate in the Salmon in the Schools program. They arrived by bus at Fauntleroy Park in the midmorning sun and headed to the creek:
Watershed steward Judy Pickens tells us that lead teacher Christina Massimino and students at Boren have “jumped in” wholeheartedly with a lot of environmental learning tied to coho-raising in the four months since eggs were delivered.
Another 19 releases are planned in the next month. Judy adds, “Volunteers Dennis Hinton, Pete Draughon, and Shannon Ninburg will be in the woods again this year, dipping fish, looking out for safety, and coordinating habitat exploration.”
After the fry are freed, it’s off to Judy’s end of the creek, closer to the overlook across from the Fauntleroy ferry dock, for Q&A and lunch. The annual cycle at Fauntleroy Creek also includes the fall watch for spawners; last year, volunteers counted 18, the most in four years.
P.S. In case you haven’t already seen it, Fauntleroy Creek – and Dennis and Judy – got a TV showcase this week.
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