Local politicians moaned and groaned when Chinook salmon joined the list of endangered species earlier this year. Amid complaints about federal regulations cramping our style and Gov. Gary Locke's inadequate salmon budget proposals, local residents and environmentalists are discovering that the City of Seattle's waterways are in need of a lot of work to make them salmon-friendly.

Unsurprisingly, much of the problem lies with the city's inability (or unwillingness) to cope with development. Take, for example, Carkeek Park in Northwest Seattle. The park and its streams have been the focus of years of hard work by local residents (including schoolchildren) to restore salmon habitat in Piper's Creek and Venema Creek. Yet this past winter, raw sewage overflowed from two manholes and a nearby sewer main nine times and spewed geysers of raw sewage on the park's main roadway, ripping out new trails and fouling Piper's and Venema Creeks. In January the county's environmental lab measured fecal coliform bacteria levels in the creeks at 37,000 organisms per 100 ml.; 50 organisms per 100 ml. is considered a public health risk. The Health Department closed the park to visitors on Feb. 25.

In anger, the local residents have asked the Dept. of Design, Construction and Land Use to place a moratorium on new construction in Northwest Seattle--at least until the city and county increase wastewater capacity. The city has proposed shifting the local neighborhood's wastewater load into a larger main pipe and replacing some side sewers, but residents view this as only a temporary solution. They would like a complete overhaul of the area's aging sewer system, a change in the way sewage is pumped through the system (currently sewage is allowed to flow downhill to Carkeek, then pumped back uphill to the Westpoint treatment station), and the construction of the third sewage plant in the North Seattle area. The King County Council is still debating where to site the new plant; as recently as a few months ago, some city and county engineers were still arguing that a third plant wasn't needed, and that we should just skip secondary sewage treatment and dump the raw sewage directly into the Sound.

It will take a city council vote to stop construction in Northwest Seattle. A county council vote will determine where to locate the new sewage treatment plant. In the meantime, local residents near Carkeek Park will have to hope that something gets done before next winter's heavy rainfall.

Another waterway in danger is the Thornton Creek in Northeast Seattle. Like the Carkeek Park streams, Thornton Creek has been the loving focus of local residents attempting to restore fish habitat and wildlife to the city. In spite of years of effort, the south fork of Thornton Creek remains buried under the asphalt of Northgate Mall's south parking lot; many Thornton Creek supporters have long wanted to "daylight" the creek and restore its ability to support Chinook salmon, which is native to the creek. But new plans to expand Northgate Mall include building an underground parking garage on the south parking lot site, which would mean digging up the creek and redirecting the flow. The mall owner, Simon Properties of Indianapolis, has resisted suggestions to bring the creek back to the surface. Their only concession to Thornton Creek residents has been to propose constructing a retention pond for runoff water from the construction site; unfortunately, the pond's too small to hold all of the water from the entire 67-acre development.

In the meantime, according to a Seattle Press article, SPU employees have found Cutthroat trout and small Coho and Chinook smolts in the lower branch of Thornton Creek near Meadowbrook Playfield. In spite of physical barriers (including a three-foot waterfall under Lake City Way), a state biologist claims to have found a "fairly good" population of Cutthroat trout just upstream of 15th Avenue NE. Thornton Creek's ability to support salmon habitat is clear. What's missing is the political will to require developers to help restore the creek to its natural state, and to commit local governments to spend money removing or mitigating physical barriers like the culvert under Lake City Way.

Lastly, one of the main waterways for salmon to enter the city is through the ship canal into Lake Union. Pollution levels in Lake Union and Lake Washington, combined with the physical barrier of the Ballard Locks, have long kept most salmon out of this waterway. In the last 20 years, Metro and the Seattle Public Utilities constructed sewage treatment plants to provide both primary and secondary sewage treatment; this significantly improved water quality. But the Ballard Locks are still an insurmountable barrier. Here's why: for a waterway like the ship canal to support salmon migration, it needs to have an average yearly temperature of about 60 degrees. But the Locks, in combination with the Cedar River dam far upstream, have reduced and slowed the flow of water through the lakes and the canal. This has made the water temperature in the canal increase to an average of 70 degrees. Warmer temperatures also rob the water of oxygen content. This is the same problem that has killed Chinook and Sockeye salmon runs in heavily-damned rivers like the Elwha and the Snake. What's great for shipping and pleasure boats is not so great for salmon.

These are real, concrete issues that need to be addressed in the debate over how to bring salmon back to our region. Unfortunately, state politicians do little more than wring their hands and propose more tax breaks to logging industries, while local politicians refuse to do anything that might hamper "growth." What they really mean is "growth" of their campaign funds--not of fish habitat, of course.

Sources: "Broadview Tells City To Stop Building and Fix Sewage Problem," "Can Thornton Creek be Exhumed and Revived," and "The Health of Lake Union," The Seattle Press, April 21-May 4, 1999.