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Raw Sewage

To whom it may concern,

I have observed and taken video tapes of raw sewage being dumped into Lake Washington in the area around Madison Park, which is located at 43rd St. and Madison Ave.

My wife and I used to live, July 1995 to May 1996, at the apartment complex just north of Madison Park Beach, at 2028 43rd Ave. These surrounding apartment complexes rest on piles and posts on Lake Washington. One can swim or canoe under these complexes. When you explore under these apartment complexes you will see old cast iron pipes which are used to direct the waste water, sewage, from each unit back to the main sewer lines located under the streets. These old cast iron sewage pipes are held rather loosely by small wires or sheet metal straps. One can actually wiggle the pipes back and forth to reveal that the pipes are fitted together by sleeves which, if old and often loose, will allow the sewage to run directly into Lake Washington.

I first became aware of this one quiet Sunday morning when I heard what sounded like water coming out of a hose and tinkling into Lake Washington. I looked outside my apartment balcony and saw a 4 foot circle of bubbles in the water below. 15 minutes later it happened again, and this time I raced outside to see the hot steaming water coming from one of the dangling sewage pipes. I looked upwards and realized that someone was running their dishwasher. The 15 minute delay and hot, steaming, bubbly water explained it all. I spoke with the lady at that apartment, who confirmed she had seen these bubbles for the last 7 years but never connected that it could have been her dishwasher! Later I observed that these bubbles would persist for hours in the general area around these apartment complexes.

That day I launched my kayak, paddled under these apartment complexes and found evidence of many poorly-fitted sleeves and rusted pipes--some had large holes! Every so often, when someone flushed or showered and the plumbing to their apartment unit was defective, the sewage would come gushing right out into Lake Washington. I paddled under many different complexes north and south of the Madison Park Beach, and found more evidence of sewage leaking or gushing into Lake Washington.

The currents seem to be in the northward direction; the water would either be clear (to the south) as it should be, or it would have a deep dark green color (to the north), which is evidence of the typical nutrients found in sewage. This suggests that sewage has been leaking for a long time, not just seven years, as that leak from the pipes connecting the dishwasher.

I mentioned this to my apartment managers, who generally showed no concern for anything that would cost time and money to repair. They, Jim and Shirley Gorman, who also managed the complex to the south, which has the look of a nice Bavarian village.

I made a video of a tremendous plume of bubbles coming from the complex just north of ours. Above that plume was a women sitting on her balcony who had obviously just shampooed her hair.

I called news services to report this. I called the various state environmental protection agencies. The problem with this "story" is that one has to be patient and do some investigation in order to see it. You would need a small boat during a calm day when people are using their showers, etc. before you can catch a news-worthy video clip. The best times would be when people are using the sewage pipes the most: first thing in the morning before going to work. The sewage problem continued.

After the 1996 Duvall Earth Quake shook us inside these poorly constructed apartment complexes, we moved to Issaquah. Windstorms, with large logs being thrown against the pilons on which the complexes rest, and minor earth tremors, will often loosen these hanging sewage pipes located just feet from the Lake Washington water.

One year later, in 1997, my wife and I were standing on the boat dock at the end of Madison Ave. on Lake Washington and we could see streams of bubbles traveling towards the swimming beach. We also witnessed plumes all over these apartment complexes to the north of the Beach. The pollution was the worst we had ever seen. We were furious that it was never fixed. I let the life guards at the beach know about this, and to keep watch for the traveling plumes of sewage bubbles. We reported it to same news and government agencies. Not much was done. Some water samples were taken, but the pollution does not disperse evenly and may linger twenty feet from the shoreline.

This week I was chatting with my neighbors in Issaquah. I was told of how one neighbor nearly died this last summer from a parasite which is found in fecal material, after participating in a swimmers' marathon off the Madison Park Beach area. After hearing my story, he now wants to take this to the courts. It appears that the authorities who are given the job keep us safe, have failed us all and surely need to pay a heavy price for their incompetence and lack of concern. We are sure that many other people have gotten horribly ill after swimming in this particular Beach area.

Imagine how many children had become horribly ill after swallowing water around that Beach area, and not one person had a clue where it came from!

A truly concerned citizen,

Boris Wiggers, Issaquah

More on the Makah Whaling

Jim Page:

You state in your editorial that you are opposed to the whale hunt and then proceeded to savage Paul Watson's effort to stop it.

I have two questions I would like you to answer:

1) What exactly did you do to stop that to which you are opposed?

2) How effective was what you did in opposition?

If you insist on denigrating other's efforts and worse, term all opposition as "racist" may I suggest the you proceed forthwith, to have unlawful carnal knowledge of yourself, you Politically Correct weenie.

Athena McEntyre, Chief Medical Officer and Deck Swabber, Sedna, Sea Defense Alliance

P.S. Motto for our Neah Bay action: "I Got Stoned at Neah Bay."

Captain Fraud

ETS!,

Jim Page's description of "Captain" Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Society is on the mark. No one should be giving Watson the time of day, much less a nickel to continue his racist and wacko operation.

About six years ago someone invited Watson to the campus where I teadh to give an environmental studies lecture. I'd never heard of the guy, but somehow I got drafted to take him and his fiancee, Lisa, to dinner before the talk. It was the day Magic Johnson publicly announced he was HIV positive, and this came up at dinner. Watson went on a tirade about how worthless basketball is as a recreational activity, how "those" people (urban blacks) ought to find something better o do, and basically, how anybody with HIV deserves what they get. In his opinion, AIDS is not a bad, sad, or tragic thing at all--it's a population reduction fact. When I disagreed, they both looked like they'd rathre punch me than argue. (Actually, they look that way all the time.)

He went on to give an appalling talk about his own great courage and visionary leadership in a spineless, no-vision world.

The guy is a barbarian. I've never figured out if he has any followers at all, but he has quite a publicity machine, as the Makah whalers are finding out. He needs to be exposed as the egomaniacal fraud he is.

--Susan Davis, Laramie WY