Environment

Seattle Public Utilities wants residents in certain areas of Ballard to make landscape improvements to help control storm water runoff and is willing to foot about 90 percent of the bill.

"For anyone who wants to redo their lawn, here is a way to get motivated," Seattle Public Utilities' Tracy Tackett told attendees at the Jan. 13 Ballard District Council meeting.

In March, Seattle Public Utilities will be starting its RainWise program to encourage city residents to add storm water control features, such as cisterns, rain gardens and porous pavement, to their property.

The area of Ballard between Northwest 65th Street and Northwest 85th Street and 15th Avenue Northwest and 33rd Avenue Northwest is a combined sewer overflow area. Because of this, anything that is done to improve runoff on private property affects the whole system, Tackett said.

Seattle Public Utilities will offer a rebate, which is often worth about 90 percent of the cost of a project, to homeowners in that area who add RainWise features to their property, Tackett said.

This summer, third-generation Ballardite Mike Erstad will be climbing the 14,410 of Mount Rainier to raise money for the American Lung Association as part of the 23rd Climb for Clean Air.

For Erstad, an avid backpacker and hiker who scaled Rainier in 2006, lung health is a personal issue worthy of support.

His oldest son suffers from asthma and his grandfather died of lung cancer.

Erstad's goal is to raise $4,000 in pledges for the American Lung Association. The group of about 50 climbers embarking on the Climb for Clean Air in July have an overall goal of $200,000.

The Mount Rainier climb is going to be a treat, Erstad said.

"I'm a Northwest guy, so I love getting outdoors," he said. "When you get out, it's just so beautiful. I can't get over the scenery."

In addition to the views, Erstad will get to spend some time with the Whittaker family, mountaineering legends.

"It's like hanging out for a few days with Michael Jordan for a basketball player," he said.

Lou Whittaker, founder of Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., led the first successful American summit of the North Col of Mount Everest.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Department of Ecology approved clean water projects in Ballard, as well as Spokane and Olympia, worth a total of $5.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding Nov. 24.

Project proponents estimate the projects will support approximately 75 construction jobs.

The low-impact development projects will provide enhanced stormwater treatment. Such projects mimic nature to capture or slow stormwater runoff so it can naturally infiltrate back into the ground.

Seattle Public Utilities’ Ballard Green Streets project gets $1.54 million of the $5.6 million.

The utility will install 10 blocks of swales to naturally detain and infiltrate stormwater.

This Green Streets project will control runoff from 2.6 acres of hard surfaces, reducing sewer/storm overflows. The swales will help reduce stormwater pollution in the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which serves as a key migration corridor for threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead, coho salmon and regionally significant sockeye salmon.

As we reported here Dennis Hinton, longtime volunteer with the Fauntleroy Watershed Council has been working with Council Project Manager, Judy Pickens, on overseeing the spawning coho salmon in Fauntleroy Creek this time of year.

Hinton, whose daughter Lori is a West Seattle Herald contributor and author of "West Seattle 101," would like to share his story with West Seattle Herald readers:

MY FACINATION WITH THE COHO RETURNING
TO SPAWN AT FAUNTLEROY CREEK
By Dennis Hinton
November 16, 2009

Several days ago a reporter from the West Seattle Herald asked me why I am so passionate about salmon returning to our little Fauntleroy Creek. I did not have a very good answer for him, but it got me to thinking.

In the big picture, I think it is an absolute miracle that they return at all. And proof that miracles can happen---for me a source of inspiration for overcoming long odds. When salmon mate and lay eggs in the creek, those eggs become fry, which can stay in the fresh water of the creek for nearly a year.

Just a few hundred feet south of the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock the Fauntleroy Creek empties into Puget Sound. And every year between Halloween and Thanksgiving coho salmon attempt to swim up the picturesque, leaf-canopied creek, an obstacle course of rocks, logs, and native plants. A dedicated team called the Fauntleroy Watershed Council keep an eye on the creek and the coho, and count the fish. So far this season about 20 coho have been spotted since Nov. 8. There were just two counted last year, 90 three years ago.

“More fish are spotted when the tides are high, and with a lot of rain the creek goes up fast, which could push more fish up there,” said area resident Dennis Hinton, a volunteer at the creek for10 years since the council began. “You never know about ocean conditions, blockage on the creek, and whales,” he said. “About three weeks ago two pods of killer whales came by and ate a lot of fish.”
Hinton is an avid fly-fisherman and loves all things fish related. The retired ad-man coined the term “What’s Beneath the Surface” for a publicity campaign for the Seattle Aquarium.

At 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 24, members of Sustainable Ballard gathered together in Bergen Place to "squash" global warming as part of International Climate Awareness Day.

Members of the neighborhood group arranged squash, gourds and pumpkins to write out the number 350.

The number 350 represents the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that scientists say is tolerable to humanity, according to www.350.org.

According to the site, current levels of carbon dioxide are approximately 390 parts per million.

In addition to the squash, the event included a pledge to lower carbon emissions for Ballard residents to sign, a letter to sign to President Obama to support the 350 goal, and a conference call with the Citizen Climate Lobby.

A citywide 350 event was scheduled for later that afternoon at the Seattle Center.

Sustainable Ballard's original plan was to destroy any extra squash if they had more than 350 as a symbol of lowering the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

By 10 a.m., the number of squash was hovering in the mid-250s, but event organizer Andrea Faste was able to put a positive spin on it.