One of the Environmental Committee's goals for this year was to partner with other environmental organizations to promote stewardship of our backyard waterways. One result of our collaboration efforts is the Seattle Audubon article in the August 2007 edition of the Newsletter.
Our plan is to have continuing Audubon Newsletter articles about birds,
waterfowl and our shoreline natural environment. The articles will
promote the protection of our waterways and urban shoreline wildlife.
Let us know if you have a particular subject or topic on which you
would like an article.
Over the next few years, King County will be making decisions about
sewer improvements affecting Lake Washington Ship Canal water quality.
At this time there is diluted wastewater overflowing into the Canal,
Lake Union and other waterways during large rainstorms - these are
called Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO). The County and City are
fine-tuning some completed projects along east and west Lake Union. The
Environmental
Committee will be meeting with King County in July to learn more about
the upcoming CSO projects. I will provide updated information, if any.
Check the FHA website and future Newsletters. Meanwhile, you can get
more information from the King County Metro website:
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/WTD/cso/.
Pat Sampson, a Committee member, has come up with the idea of
developing an "Adopt a Shoreline" program modeled after the successful
"Adopt a Street" program. The Committee plans to pursue this idea with
the City of Seattle. We don't know if the idea will fly, but we will
let you know what comes of it.
Before closing, I want to welcome the newest member of the
Environmental Committee, Susan Susor. Let me know if you are interested
in joining the Committee or would like to be a dock representative for
communicating with members. You can contact me at bobbowman2@msn.com
Floating Home Community Turns Out
To Sweep the Lake and Portage Bay
By Bob Bowman
The 5th Annual Lake Union Sweep, organized by Pugetoundkeeper Alliance, was a huge success! The Floating Homes Association is one of the sponsors of this annualvent. This year’s cleanup of Lake Union and Portage Bay resulted in the largest trash pick-up and most volunteersarticipating ever.
The Houseboat Community assisted in breaking both those records. We had a total of 39 houseboat folks register on Sweep day – 23 at South Lake Union and 16 at Portage Bay. In addition to that, we had six docks sign up for debris removal from houseboat dock waterways and shorelines. Environmental Committee members signed in houseboaters at the event and handed out FHA baseball caps to all our volunteers. Houseboaters then took to the water in kayaks and small motorboats or cleaned-up along the shoreline and houseboat docks. I was aboard the Puget Soundkeeper patrol boat collecting debris from the houseboat docks. I can verify that floating homes residents contributed substantially to the more than 6600 pounds of trash collected from the water and shoreline that day. Also, there was plenty of food and fun at the celebration immediately following the event. Thanks to everyone who volunteered for this year’s Sweep. We plan to have even more houseboater volunteers next year. See you next May!.