It is frustrating to see Coulon Beach Park closed with increasing frequency due to fecal coliform. With its 55 acres of land and a mile of waterfront, it’s too valuable of a public asset for us to sit by and watch the beaches get closed for yet another weekend due to pollution. Our Northwest summers are too short already.
For years we’ve had no closures of this park, in part because we have been paying about one-hundred-thousand dollars per year to keep geese away from the park and to stop the geese from breeding.
But last year, and this, we seem to be getting a new source of pollution from an as-yet undetermined source. Even though we have the goose population much reduced from years past, the fecal matter is getting worse and we have to do something about it.
Some possible causes are failing septic systems or broken sewer pipes in older neighborhoods around the lake. Maybe… but I sometimes wonder if Metro’s own sewer interceptors, which run right along the lake shore and even under water (carrying sewage from Mercer Island and the entire East Side of Lake Washington), might be the source.
It’s not right for the responsible jurisdictions of Metro, King County, and the State of Washington to sit by and watch as Renton maintains this priceless public property with the highest quality of care all year; then watch as we hire life guards, summer maintenance assistants, extra police, and a cadre of other summer help so that the entire south County may have free public access to Lake Washington compliments of Renton taxpayers; AND THEN SHUT OUR BEACH.
The mayor should demand that Metro fix this situation immediately…if she can’t turn the situation around, the city council may have to step in.
1958 campaign poster to encourage voters to form Metro, to clean up Lake Washington
Coulon Beach Park, 50 years later
For King County information on beach closures click here
Picnic shelters at the swimming area are reserved nearly a year in advance
Gunk at the corner of the swim area…it feels like no one wants to go near the contaminated water even to clean this up
A young visitor touches the water before anyone can get to his mom to explain the reason for the closure. The signs say “beach closed – no swimming”, but do not explain that the water is contaminated…I think we should add this fact to the signs
Another shot of the closure signs and barricades
The normally bustling park seems eerily quiet on this sunny summer day with the beach closed…at least the parking is easy for a change.
That’s an interesting sign that was used in the metro campaign – how ironic. I hadn’t realized that with the beach closed nobody goes to the park! I hope we can get it cleaned up again.
I’m sorry. I should really stop pooping in the water.
Yea probably. That seems to be our “number 2” problem right now. ha ha
But I checked through two pages of park rules, which limit/prohibit everything from badminton to tricycles to model airplanes, and *ahem* pooping in the water actually seems to be legal…unless I missed something. Here is the link