HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

Yuck!

The New York Times continues its excellent investigative serious on the nation's water pollution problem with another installment of Poisoned Waters, this one examining the problem of combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times analysis shows.

One of the driving factors in this growing problem, has been the destruction of the land's natural ability to absorb rainwater. That sounds familiar...

As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches.

Given the amount of money that's estimated to be needed to build and rebuild sewage treatment systems, I have to wonder whether the time isn't right for a green jobs package, this one based on protecting our communities' health and clean water?

Forest Health in Federal Way

I recently had a chance to sit down with Federal Way's Interim City Manager (and Chief of Police) Brian Wilson to talk about forest health in the Hylebos and beyond. We've been having a conversation with city staff and council about forest health problems in Federal Way and what we can and should be doing to address those problems.

It's a big problem, but the first step to solving it is defining the problem and the solution.

Tugging at Nature: A Video of the Hylebos

Check this out. A Video produced by Sean MacLean and Doug Brauns and shown at Ruby Dance.

A Flood of Ruby Dance Thoughts

Last night was our September board meeting (which we moved to October, due to Ruby Dance. We then moved our October meeting to Nov. 2nd becoming our November October meeting, and we'll close up shop for the year with a joint November-December meeting in December. Confused?!) which was used to review and discuss Ruby Dance results.

The overall verdict is that the event was very successful. We beat our financial goals and had very good attendance in a down year. We've gotten plenty of feedback that the event was very enjoyable. The new items - a live auction and paddle raise - were quite successful.

Of course, it wasn't perfect, and we want to learn from the mistakes and challenges, and try to make the following year's event. We spent some time listing the things that didn't work out as positively as we'd liked. We'll take the pluses and minuses back to our event steering committee, mull things over and make recommendations for RD 2010.

There really isn't much of a gap between the end of one event and the beginning of planning for next year's event.

From flood of support to real world flooding: Keith Ervin writes about the challenges Howard Hanson Dam (and everything downstream) is facing. The details of the decisions on how to construct the dam, and the history that's led up to where we are today, is rather fascinating for this water-bug. Two factors in this story are very interesting to me:

1)  The decision in the 1950s to build the dam with the existing earthen abutment and leave the issue of what to do with (the quite real possibility of) leaks that might occur to future generations (aka "us").

2)  The cumulative decisions by government and individuals to populate the Green River floodplain. Even though that in itself isn't remarkable - its a pattern as old as human history - in the current situation, with the potential for serious flooding looming, it's worth looking at that floodplain, and asking ourselves whether we've overlooked the natural systems

The City of Seattle is re-mapping its creeks' floodplains. Because I don't spend much time there, I don't really think of Seattle as having creeks. But i have toured quite  a bit of the Thornton Creek Watershed (thanks to Rocky), and they've got the same dynamic (though on a much smaller scale) as the Green River. Houses are built right next to the creek. Yards run right up to the creek. Bank armoring is plentiful to defend against erosion.

The challenge for urban floodplains (and let's face it, much of the Green River floodplain is), is now that we have people living (and working) in large numbers in the path of the 100-year, or even 10-year storm, how do we make the best of the situation. Can we re-strike the balance between flood functions and flood management?

Bird Nests on Monday

Cool sounding presentation on bird nests this coming Monday sponsored by Rainier Audubon Society.

Something's Wrong in the Nation's Water

Disturbing but very important investigative report over at the NYT about water pollution in this country, and increasing failure by the government to prevent or stop polluters, AND increasing incidences of water pollution.

According to the Times:

Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.

And this isn't necessarily your grandfather's pollution:

Because most of today’s water pollution has no scent or taste, many people who consume dangerous chemicals do not realize it, even after they become sick, researchers say.

But an estimated 19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. That figure does not include illnesses caused by other chemicals and toxins.

Government at all levels has fallen asleep, or simply looked the other way, while violations and health impacts increase.

Finally, the Times’s research shows that fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials. And the E.P.A. has often declined to prosecute polluters or force states to strengthen their enforcement by threatening to withhold federal money or take away powers the agency has delegated to state officials.

Very cool article on PNW bats and efforts to monitor the health of the population.

Going Batty over Spawning and Ruby Dance

Is this serendipitous synchronicity or not? The last song on the last song on KEXP was "C'mon Let's Spawn" by The Make-Up...and it's spawning season in the Hylebos...and it's Ruby Dance season. Less than two weeks to go until Ruby Dance 2005, our annual benefit and awards dinner. If you don't have your reservations, call us. You don't want to miss it!

Of course, RD is what I'm working on all day long here. There's lots to do with a special event and the entire staff and board and volunteers, are working hard to get everything in place for the 26th.

In the meantime, here are a couple of news itmes that caught my attention today:

Eeek! There's MRSA on our beaches. No more burying me in the sand on beach day.

Given their nocturnal lifestyle its easy to overlook bats and their importance to our ecosystems (think insect control and that's one thing to be thankful for), so its good to see that researchers are monitoring local bat populations, in light of the White-nose disease that's caused bat populations to crash elsewhere.
So far, it doesn't appear to be here.

More than 1 million bats already have perished in what one expert described as the most precipitous decline in American wildlife in recorded history. Extinctions are likely if the white-nose disease continues to spread, and could lead to a population explosion of mosquitoes and other insect pests normally held in check by the winged predators.

The Story of Old Buck, The Invasive Species

I love 3-day weekends. Apart from the half-day spent moving daughter #1 into her new home, I vegged inside for much of the weekend. There's something about rainy, soggy days that trigger my vegging instinct. I finished a wonderful book, "Then We Came To The End" by Joshua Ferris and for that I was thankful. I hope everyone's weekend was enjoyable.

This article caught my attention this morning. The new Lynnwood High School has integrated science education activities with their onsite stream & wetlands. Sounds like a great opportunity to bring science into the real world, something we hope to be doing in the not too distant future with the Hylebos.

Here's a neat story of a man working to clean-up and preserve the Mid-Fork Snoqualmie River into a family-friendly forest recreation area & Wilderness candidate. There's somethng about working on a scale of conservation small enough to be able to know the land intimately.

"It's a place where I thought I could make a difference," said Mark Boyar, 52. "It was small enough I could get to know it and work hard at it. The more I came here, the more I learned, and after all those years it's very personal."

Dangers of Invasives and Little Biodiversity
An article about deers and Lyme Disease on Nantucket Island offers a few insights into the risks of introducing non-native species, and how lack of biodiversity can magnify disease risks.

In the annals of animals linked to human disease, there is surely a place for Old Buck of Nantucket.

Spotted in 1922 deer-paddling in the ocean, he was scooped up by a fishing sloop and brought to Nantucket, an island then without a single deer. And since the animal, nicknamed Old Buck, was single, Nantucket took pity on him. With help from a summer resident, a diplomat who had helped create the League of Nations, two does were imported from Michigan in 1926, greeted at the wharf by a cheering crowd

There's no cheering now, as the deer, which have spread like urban myths on the Internet, have become the prime vector for the ticks that carry Lyme Disease. Nantucket Island has one of the highest per capita incidences of Lyme.

“In a place like Nantucket or any other island, there’s less biodiversity, which can mean more intense transmission of infections,” said Dr. Sam Telford III, a tick expert at Tufts University’s school of veterinary medicine.

Houses built closer to deer habitat draw deer to tasty landscaping, and that brings ticks closer to people. Officials estimate that there are about 2,500 deer, about 60 per square mile — compared with 10 to 20 per square mile on the mainland.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed Nantucket among the top three Lyme disease counties since 1992.

Invasives can wreak havoc on ecosystems, though rarely with as many direct impacts to humans as the introduction of Old Buck to Nantucket Island.

Is Growth Management Managing Growth The Way We Want?

A couple of items of note today. Our old friend and 2006 Ruby Dance Keynote Speaker, Doug MacDonald presents a compelling argument that current growth management is not achieving the densities desired for urban areas. Growth, he states, is mostly happening on the suburban fringes, and imminent regional transportation decisions need to incorporate this reality into their decision making. 

Doug's article touches on a question that's critical to communities of the Hylebos: how do we create/foster urban communities that provide for density...and are compelling enough to get people to actually live there?

Another set of disconcerting numbers. Is volunteering waning nationally with the deepening recession? According to a new national survey, it is. This is contrary to the experience of past recessions when volunteering has held stable or increased. The National Conference on Citizenship reports:

...that 72 percent of Americans said they were devoting less time to volunteering and other civic activities, like providing food and shelter to those in need and participating in public discussions like town-hall-style meetings.

I don't believe we've seen evidence of a dip in Hylebos volunteering. However, we are heading into our heavy volunteer season and we'll have to see what the response is.

Starting Up Forest Health Program

I had a positive meeting with city of Federal Way officials to discuss our urban forest health program. The Friends will be putting together some public awareness and then a series of volunteer ivy removal efforts at Dumas Bay Preserve this fall. We want to use this pilot project as a launching pad a citywide forest health program.

I came out of yesterday's meeting with the beginning steps of building awareness within city government for the issue. Senior staff know it's a serious issue and would like to collaborate. Next up, I'll make a series of presentations to the Council and commissions with the hope of getting a policy statement for forest health.

In the news. Native bees are filling in the gap (somewhat) left by declining honeybee populations.

More invasives/natives story with a "Yuh Think?!" story. Removing invasive rats from an island has its own ecological problems.

Then an interesting piece about how some of the Stim money is funding Puget Sound tribal members to remove derelict nets from the bottom of the Sound.

The NYT recently published an article about the potential dangers of the common weed killer atrazine, which is commonly found in drinking water supplies.