During major rain storms, Seattle’s storm drainage systems are often stressed. With large amounts of stormwater and wastewater heading down to water treatment plants, pipes can fill up quickly. To prevent sewage backups, the city will allow the burdened pipes to overflow directly into Puget Sound or Lake Washington without first being treated.
Tracy Tackett with Seattle Public Utilities is working on a way to reduce the amount of stormwater that reaches the pipes. She’s proposing the Ballard Green Streets project. The idea is to build specially designed green spaces in the planter strips between the sidewalk and the street which would catch water in an environmentally friendly way. The water would be slowed or stopped at the source and allowed to soak back into the earth. Phase one of this project would be between NW 75th and NW 85th and 28th Ave NW to 32nd Ave NW. This is an ideal test location, Tracy says, because it has a monitoring station down stream.
Another idea is to bump out curbs, like shown above, which could possibly slow traffic in busy neighborhoods while minimizing the water that reaches the pipes. Neighbors within the above-mentioned area will be receiving a letter in the near future describing this proposal followed by a community meeting. This is not a guaranteed project, neighbors need to approve it before it can move forward. Tracy says if phase one is successful, phase two would be all of Ballard south of 85th and west of 15th. East of 15th is in the King County basin and not maintained by the city.
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