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

Several of my council colleagues celebrate and laugh along with the mayor and members of the public during the award presentation at the “leash-cutting” for the new dog park.
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Water fluoridation has been a subject of some controversy for as long as most of us can remember.

Highly-respected agencies and scientific data suggests that for relatively small per-person costs, water fuoridation has helped reduce cavities in children– particularly those that may not otherwise have good access to dental health services and fluoride treatments. On the other side of the argument, there are people who question the data in light of the fact that many developed countries do not fluoridate water, and have experienced improvements in dental health similar to the USA since 1970. And there are people who have sensitivities to fluoride, who have to drink bottled water to avoid stomach aches or other problems associated with fluoride in the water.

The City of Issaquah still does not fluoridate its water. Every time the officials move to do it, the public largely objects and shoots the idea down. They are once again asking for input right now. Click here to see their meeting announcement

We were chatting about this in the Corman household tonight as we pondered ways Renton could consider saving money. I have no strong opinion on this myself, although one family member drinks bottled water to avoid too much fluoride because of sensitivities to it. I suspect it would save $100,000 to $200,000 a year in Renton if we stopped fluoridating our water, but I have never asked our staff for an estimate. If we stopped fluoridating, the savings would not help balance our general fund (it would not pay for police or fire) since the utility fund is separate; but any savings could off-set customer water rates.

Again, I am not advocating one way or the other, but I would be interested to hear your views on the topic.

Here is a pretty good article in Wikipedia, that covers a lot of aspects of this policy question.

What do you think Rentonites? Are you glad we fluoridate your water, or do you wish we would stop?

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)

We enjoyed great food, gifts, and formal greetings tonight at the lovely Dochnahl residence, as we celebrated the Nishiwaki Delegation’s visit to Renton. We also talked about past visits, plans for the rest of the visit, and simply caught up with old friends.

Mayor Kishi from Nishiwaki delivered a warm and gracious speech in English, which he explained he had prepared on the plane ride over here. Denis Law and I spoke briefly on behalf of the city; the rest of the party was informal and just friends having fun.

Rentonites and our Nikiwashi guests share a saki toast at tonight’s reception
Click here to see the pictures

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!

 

Our final farewell ceremony 16 months in Nishiwaki. It was hard to say goodbye.

Nishiwaki’s delegation is back in Renton, and they will be here for three days. Today we’re visiting Liberty Park and the many surrounding sites. If you are downtown perhaps we’ll bump into you! If so, please say welcome to our many wonderful sister-city guests!

I took many pictures last year when we visited them. Please click here to see those photos and entries. Be sure you keep scrolling down to find the pictures from our tours.

(Please note that delegates always pay their own travel costs)

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?

Another scorcher today. Exactly how hot was it in Renton today?

It was so hot in Renton that Maplewood Golf course was warning golfers to watch out for scorpions and rattle snakes.

It was so hot in Renton that we are thinking about adding Reykjavik, Iceland to our sister city program, and then organizing an eighty-thousand-person delegation to go there

It was so hot in Renton my wife and I are looking to trade our horse in for a camel.

It was so hot in Renton that some people were considering trying to hasten the damage at the Howard Hanson Dam

It was so hot in Renton that European travel guides listed the Dairy Queen on 4th street as a more interesting attraction than Jimi Hendrix burial site.

It was so hot in Renton we had to keep closing down the Renton Airport to clear away the tumbleweeds

It was so hot in Renton that even the creepiest customers at the phony tanning salon decided all they wanted was an ice water and a tan.

Please don’t miss yesterday’s blog about the heat, along with the funny user submitted comments, which you can read Here .

How hot did YOU think it was today Rentonites?

Hottest. Day. Ever.

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

Weekend River Days festivities at Liberty Park kicked off this afternoon, with some great entertainment, great food, art, animals, many activities, and perfect weather conditions.

The parade starts tomorrow at 10:00 sharp.

Here are some pictures from this evening, followed by a few shots from Wednesday’s “Kid’s Day”

And, some pictures from Kids Day (Wednesday):

Water cascades off of a Harrington Square tower as fire fighters pour ten thousand gallons per minute on the blaze and surrounding neighborhood. This rate of flow would fill the entire Henry Moses Aquatic Center every thirty minutes. (Photo by Gary Palmer)

The Harrington Square fire scene on Tuesday night was a dramatic flurry of flames, firefighters, emergency vehicles, spectators, hoses, and water-water-water everywhere. I was amazed by the number of fire hoses in action by the time I arrived at the scene.

I instantly thought about the conversations we had held about the fire flow capacity in this neighborhood several years earlier, and the complex projects our water department had undertaken to improve the condition.

In the previous year our water department engineering supervisors, Abdoul Gafour, Lys Hornsby, and Greg Zimmerman had lead their teams on a massive effort to improve the water capacity in this neighborhood specifically to prepare for a large apartment-house fire.

The improvements they made included trenching over a mile of street to put in larger water mains, the construction of a 4.2 million gallon reservoir near Hazen High School, and dozens of new connections and fire hydrants.

The new water mains were paid for through a Special Assessment District, that developers in the affected area pay into at the time of new construction of large commercial projects. This was determined to be the most fair way to get the water system necessary for safe large-scale development, without asking local homeowners to pay for it.

The water main upsizing came in under budget, at around 1.2 million dollars plus some city staff time. Considering that the two mostly finished Harrington Square towers (that already have carpet and appliances) were very possibly saved by the higher water capacity, we might have already seen a twenty to one financial return on these water upgrades. And if you consider that the water upgrades may have contributed to keeping other parts of the highlands from burning, the financial and emotional payback of the water upgrades is immeasurable. (For instance the Oakland Hills California fire of 1991 did two billion in damage and created overwhelming heartbreak; it was worsened by antiquated, narrow, water lines…fire fighters had too little pressure, or simply ran out of water while trying to battle that blaze.)

I spoke with our Water Utility Supervisor Abdoul Gafour yesterday, to commend him and his department for the excellent work. He responded with some very interesting data by email, which I have attached here:
_____________________________________________

Hello Councilmember Corman,

As a follow-up to our phone conversation this afternoon, attached are copies of City correspondences with background information related to the water main improvements, and to the new Hazen 4.2 Million-Gallon reservoir, which were completed in February 2009. The new 12-inch looped water mains (located in NE Sunset Blvd, Harrington Ave NE, and NE 9th St) along with the additional storage from the new reservoir were able to deliver sufficient flows and water pressure during the recent fire in the Highlands.

Although the new water mains were designed to provide 5,000 gallons per minute based on a design criteria using a lower flow velocity in the pipe during normal usage to reduce scouring, they can provide 8,000 to 10,000 gallons per minute during a fire fighting event, because water will be drawn from the hydrants at a higher velocity.

Our telemetry records showed that all of our booster pump stations performed very well during the fire fighting event, and were able to replenish water storage to the Highlands and Hazen reservoirs from other storage facilities located in other pressure zones within the City. I am also attaching some photos taken during the construction of the 12-inch water line.

I was able to visit the site later in the evening of the event, and saw that fire trucks from Renton and from several other Cities and Fire Districts were drawing water from at least 8 hydrants simultaneously and that the water pressure and flowrate were adequate. Each hydrant can deliver a minimum of 1,000 gpm.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information. Happy 4th of July to you and your family.

Regards,

Abdoul Gafour
Water Utility Engineering Supervisor
425-430-7210

________________________________________________________

This scene, with many hoses being used, was the same on all four sides of the fire. Firefighters used additional hoses to spray down the surrounding homes.(Photo by Gary Palmer)

The day after the fire, a new hydrant hints at the massive water improvements undertaken by the Water Utility to prepare for such an event (Photo by Gary Palmer)

 

Below you can see the special assessment summary:

Last year: crews digging up Harrington Ave to install new water mains. (Photo courtesy of City of Renton)

A new water main placed in it’s trench last year (photo courtesy of City of Renton)

New Hazen Reservoir, completed last year, holds 4.2 million gallons of water to meet fire and customer needs in Renton Highlands

CLICK HERE for a six page power-point presentation council received in Utilities Committee containing additional detail about these water upgrades.

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.

Flames could be seen for miles tonight as two of four building at our brand new Harrington Square Apartments burned to the ground in Renton Highlands.

The complex of 5 story buildings caught fire in a dramatic fashion, in what many witnesses described as a loud explosion, or series of explosions. Some nearby property owners are even reporting cracked windows, possibly from the explosion.

Fire departments throughout the region sent support, to assist Renton firefighters as they battled to knock down the flames and keep them from spreading to nearby homes and businesses. Fire personnel were present from Kirkland, Woodinville, Eastside Fire and Rescue, Fire District 40, Bellevue, Seattle, Kent, Tukwila, Burien, and Skyway, and likely many others.

Fortunately, it looks at this point like no one was seriously hurt by the fire. Since the apartments units were under construction, they were unoccupied when they ignited. [INJURY UPDATE: See my next entry, an email from the mayor, for information regarding the injury of a police officer who was hit by a drunk driver while directing traffic at the scene]

Ironically, and very fortunately, the Harrington Square project had been delayed for over a year as we upgraded water mains in Sunset Ave NE specifically to equip this part of the city with the capacity needed to extinguish a fire in these buildings, on the prescient advice of our fire department. We completed our 1.5 million dollar water main work last year, and construction on Harrington Square began shortly afterward.

This apartment complex was built on the site of an aging strip mall, and is intended to jump start the Renton Highlands redevelopment effort.

While the two buildings affected are a total loss, I am hopeful the project will have insurance that can keep it moving forward. This is of course a huge setback in any case.

I am thankful to all the fire fighters toiling tonight to contain the damage. They have really had to work hard this month to keep the city from burning down.

Here is a link to the architects summary of the Harrington Square project.

Here are some pictures I took at the scene:

Elizabeth Stevens, who lives just west of Renton Airport, reported this on her Facebook this morning:

“Renton Police were all over our street and down to Rainier Ave late last night searching for a hit & run suspect. Advised us all to keep doors & windows locked. Wonder if they caught the suspect. We need RPD cruising our area more frequently these days.”

I’ll post more information when it comes in.