Question: What can be messier than having the Green River run through your living room this winter?

Answer: Having Metro’s brown river running through you living room this winter.

A manhole cover in Des Moines Iowa get’s displaced by floodwater.
Photo by Jake Bauma (some rights reserved).

With the damage to the right abutment of the Howard Hanson Dam, there has been lots of talk about homeowner’s insurance, levee improvements, sandbags, pumps, and other precautions that cities, businesses and homeowner’s might take to minimize damage if the Green River floods.

I have not seen as much focus on another key safety device that would be highly recommended for many homeowners: sewage back-flow prevention valves.

Schematic of simple sewage back-flow preventer. Image thanks to City of Fort Wayne, Indiana

If your home is on the flat-lands, surrounded by hills, it may be a good candidate for a backflow prevention valve. This would be especially true if your home is less than ten feet above the elevation of the Metro treatment plant in Southwest Renton.

This is because the sewage that leaves your home, and that leaves the homes on the hills around you, travels by gravity to the Metro treatment plant. After all, everybody knows that *ahem* “sewage” flows down hill. But if the sewage reaches still water, it will stop flowing toward the plant. And when it stops flowing toward the plant, it can turn around and start making its way toward your house.

Planners are predicting that in a worse case flood of the Green River, the Metro plant could end up being on an island, with flood waters as deep as 10 feet on some of the streets surrounding it. Unfortunately, when streets get flooded, manhole covers start admitting water into the sewer system. These covers generally deflect rain, but they are not water-tight, and when they get submerged they will not keep water out of the sewer. In fact, as the sewer gets overwhelmed by storm water, manhole covers can be completely displaced by storm water… literally lifted up by the ebb and flow of the water, and then left dislodged to admit even more water.

In some scenarios, if the streets around the Metro plant all overflowed with flood water this winter, sewage from Renton Highlands, Talbot Hill, Renton Hill, and West Hill could literally start bubbling up in the homes in the lowlands. It’s nasty, and I don’t know for sure that this would happen, but it is a distinct possibility.

Your number one…and number two :-)…defense would be a sewage back-flow preventer. This is basically just an engineered check valve, which is installed in the sewer line where it exits your home.

My son and Renton Ben are working on a website for one local company that is helping outfit homes with these valves. And I’m sure there are many other plumbers that will help you to install one if your home is at risk.

If you have a home or business in the lowlands of Renton, I strongly recommend you research this a little further and consider having one of these back-flow valves installed if you don’t already have one. A sewage backup into your home would not only be disgusting, but it would be a bio-hazard as well, and obviously leave your home uninhabitable until you got it thoroughly cleaned. Finding help getting it cleaned could be very difficult if the Green River floods, since contractors and equipment suppliers would be inundated.

The effect of sewer backup in a basement is even more dramatic. Graphic thanks to City of Regina, California

Here is a picture of the rest of my party, right before our recent adventure down the river. We managed to pop the raft on the right on a rock, and then a mile further downstream capsize the inflatable kayak in a tight river bend after three of us had crammed into it; We laughed so hard it made our ribs hurt, but that was thanks to some preparation.

A few days ago I led some of my family and a visiting friend on a float trip down our beautiful Cedar River. I’ve been doing this trip for twenty-five years, and it’s always a fun adventure. And it’s never quite the same from one trip to the other.

My favorite place to put into the water is Jones Road, just east of our city and the new 152nd Ave SE bridge that connects Maple Valley Highway to Renton Highlands. (There is great parking and a great launching beach right along Jones road, about a quarter-mile east of the bridge.)

The trip then takes you past Ron Regis Park, the golf course, under Maple Valley Highway, and finally along to a couple of great parks for exiting the river– one at the rail trestle, and another at Carco Theater. The total float time is between two and three hours, depending on the level of the river. When the river is low, as it is now, you’ll hit more rocks and slow sections, and it will take longer.

But there are many things to be wary of on a trip like this, and I don’t recommend that kids do it by themselves. While hopping on floating toys in twelve inches of water seems perfectly safe at the start, there are obstacles and hazards during the entire four-mile voyage, and the water gets pretty deep in some places. Furthermore, even shallow water can drown you quickly if it is moving fast and rams you into a log-jam, so you need to recognize these jams as the life-threatening hazard they are, and either competently steer clear or simply get out of the water and walk around them.

Furthermore, like nearly everyone else on the river, I’ve always used these hardware store type inflatables, never shelling out the $1000 needed for a real whitewater raft. About one out of every three or four trips we’ll damage a raft so badly that it is no longer usable without repair, so I have learned to always have more floating capacity than we have people. Have a way that people can double-up if one of the boats springs a leak.

Everyone that gets on the river simply must be able to swim. Anyone who can’t is going to be at far more risk, and may be terrified in some sections of the trip (which will put them at further risk).

In addition, we often use life jackets, which help reduce risk of drowning in flat calm sections of water, but can carry snagging risks when it comes to log jams. The trick here is to recognize the risks of life jackets, loose clothing, necklaces, etc when it comes to log jams, and to steer clear of the logs!

When I did this float trip in 1985, there were virtually no log hazards along the way. Now there are such hazards around every bend. This is primarily because of environmental and fisheries interests; the logs provide natural fish egg laying and resting zones. Hence, logs have been purposefully installed in many cases.

Another reason for the hazards is the 2001 earthquake and landslide, which swept many trees across the river near Ron Regis Park. In some cases these logs are simply impassable on the river, and boaters must disembark and carry the boat around the obstruction.

And do not tie the rafts together. This is never a good idea, and will only make it easy for them to become entangled or flip over on the fast moving sections of the river.

One last precaution for kids is that certain areas along the banks attract a lot of drinking and partying on the warm summer days. While I’ve never been bothered by the friendly, if inebriated, greetings from people on shore, I would not necessarily want my middle school kids floating past all these parties unescorted.

While this is an article mostly about precautions, I have to say I’ve had some great times floating on our own Cedar River, and while I’ve heard of people having close calls, I’ve never seen any bad injuries first hand.

Use good sense if you try it, and recognize that you are doing it entirely at your own risk. You alone are responsible for your own safety, and the safety of your children.

This picture is straight from a fisheries website, and shows the work done to create fish habitat using logs.

This is another picture from fisheries, showing a log that has been chained to the shore to keep it from floating away in high water.

This picture shows one of many logs spanning the river at the site of the 2001 landslide near Ron Regis Park. (Photo owned and hosted in this article here in the Renton Reporter)

Our sister-city delegation has arrived. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon’s activities at Liberty Park, the Library, Renton Historical Museum, and Uptown Glassworks.

The Nishiwaki delegation poses with us in front of a tree that was given to Renton by Nishiwaki 30 years ago. The tree was one foot tall at the time!

The Renton Reporter just ran this interesting opinion piece suggesting that it was time to dump politicians from the Renton River Days Parade.

I just want to say that I’m not at all offended by this idea, and can see that it might make sense.

As guest-columnist Bill Virgin points out, politicians are in the parade in two capacities; (1) current city officials riding near the start of the parade, (2) candidates running for local and state offices who have designed their own floats, cars etc and are often handing out literature. Mr. Virgin suggests we consider both of these be reduced or eliminated, to tighten up the parade and make it more kid friendly.

I actually tend to agree, at least to an extent. While I would never turn down a request by parade organizers to participate in an official capacity, I would not make a stink if I was told I was not wanted in the parade. I trust the many wonderful volunteers working on Renton River Days to make good choices about such things, and I’m in no position to second-guess them. There are countless people who work much harder than I do to bring the River Days Parade to life.

One suggestion I have proposed to other council members in the past is that the Mayor and Council could consider all boarding the same vehicle (truck, fire-engine, trailer, whatever), and compress eight cars down to one. Usually, I bring this idea up too late, when being formally asked to participate… and at this point the cars are already scheduled for any given year, so we go with the plan. Perhaps I should push this idea a little more, and a little earlier.

With regard to candidates, I would be okay with the parade organizers making a blanket request for candidates to refrain from participating. I thing most candidates would be okay with this, if they were convinced that everyone else would do it too.

As a frequent candidate for office I can tell you that there is usually pressure to create a parade entry for your campaign, particularly if you feel your competition may be doing it. No one wants to look out-organized by their competition, or fear that citizens will think they did not care enough about their own campaign to enter the parade.

On the other hand, I know that the parade is a celebration, largely centered around children, and there is a lot of sense in handling the politicking elsewhere. Hence, I have run highly-contested races in Renton three times, and only once did I have a parade entry.

Other cities around the country have asked politicians not to enter their parades, and have generally had success when they want to keep them out. No successful politician will insist on being in a parade where they are not wanted. It may be a little harder to keep out yard signs, sticker, and buttons for politicians on the other floats, but maybe that’s not too big a deal… they are not really making the parade take any longer. And again, the parade organizers could request that people voluntarily refrain from promoting candidates.

In short, as Renton’s current longest-serving local official, I will be completely happy to leave this question to parade organizers, and I would encourage my colleagues in elected office –and those running for office– to do the same. I want Renton River Days to achieve it’s full potential, however the organizer think that will happen.

What do you all think about this?

Hottest. Day. Ever.

Sea Tac Airport hits an all-time record high. Read the story here

This has some additional details about the subject incident

______________________________________________________________
Commander Paul Cline 425-430-7597 July 1, 2009

Renton Police Department
Media Release

On June 30th, at 9:25 pm officers of the Renton Police Department were assisting with traffic control for a structure fire at NE 9th Street and Harrington Ave NE. Officers were diverting traffic at the intersection of Sunset Blvd NE and Edmonds Ave NE. A uniformed officer was in the intersection directing traffic when a white Toyota Pick-up truck, driven by a 29-year-old male, was traveling southbound on Edmonds and turned left onto eastbound Sunset. The Toyota failed to yield the right of way to a Honda that was northbound on Edmonds and struck the Honda in the intersection. The Toyota then continued eastbound on Sunset in the westbound lanes of travel and struck the officer who was directing traffic. The officer was thrown across the front end of the Toyota and carried approximately 100 feet on the vehicle before he was thrown free. The officer then rolled under the front end of another vehicle that was stopped in the westbound lanes of Sunset. The Toyota then crossed over the center median and into the eastbound lanes of travel where it collided with a parked Renton Police Car and came to rest.

The officer, who has been with the Renton Police for approximately one year, was transported to Harborview Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The officer was treated for his injuries and was released several hours later. The drivers of the vehicles involved in the collision were not injured. The Renton Police Department Traffic Unit is conducting the on-scene investigation. The driver of the Toyota Pick-up that struck the officer was arrested and transported to the Renton Police Department for investigation of Reckless Driving and DUI.

This afternoon my family and I visited the Sanctuary Apartments at the Landing. They run from $925 for a studio, to about $1900 for their most expensive unit with the best view. So far, about 30 units are occupied, about 60 more are ready for occupancy, and the remaining 350 units in the Sanctuary will be ready soon. Meanwhile, the adjacent project, called “The Reserve” is a few months later in the process. It will feature more lake views, and prices will be slightly higher. All together, there will be 880 units, with two swimming pools, and two groups of common spaces. (One for The Sanctuary, one for The Reserve).

The common areas at the Sanctuary include outdoor swimming pool, second floor garden (not yet planted), clubhouse with bar, coffee bar, business center, workout room, game room, and general sitting/visiting areas. All of it is very inviting, and will provide vibrant social living spaces for the residents.

The apartments themselves are beautiful, and provide some unique views of the Landing, Boeing, the Airport mountains, the lake (in a few cases), parks, and city lights.

To me, one of the most attractive qualities of all is the proximity to restaurants and the park. A quick walk through the Landing will offer just about any environment and food choices the residents may want, to mingle, visit, dine, etc. And Coulon Park, our most beautiful park with a mile of meticulously groomed lakefront, is just a few minutes walk from the Sanctuary, so there is something for everyone.

These apartments are sure to be a hit. Here are pictures from tonight’s visit. They are open daily until about 7:00 PM, although they close a bit earlier on Sunday.

In addition to offering tremendous housing options, these apartments will also help the Landing maintain a bustling nightlife, and together with the Boeing day crowd, ensure the restaurants and shops have plenty of core customers in addition to those of us in the surrounding parts of town.

And a quick pizza dinner at the Rock completes the afternoon… READ MORE »