Drill rigs and vactor trucks are now at work in the 17 blocks of Sunrise Heights/Westwood where King County is proposing “green stormwater infrastructure” to reduce “combined sewer overflows” at the Barton Pump Station by the Fauntleroy ferry dock. As noted here last weekend, this is part of the planning/testing/design process – to find out more about the groundwater in the area, before the rain gardens, street trees and other elements of the project are designed and built (assuming it passes environmental review and is finalized mid-year). They’re scouting spots now for groundwater-monitoring wells; the drill rig pictured above was working on 32nd SW alongside Westside School (WSB sponsor) this morning (and had an interested audience at times, we’re told).
The community-outreach manager for the project, Maryann Petrocelli, is also going door to door with flyers to the 500 or so homes in the 17-block area (see the map here) for which the project is proposed, and she tells WSB that as she talks to residents, she’s also finding out anecdotal information that will help – a spring in a backyard, a chronically flooded basement. Where they’re not sure about utilities or other underground complications, they’re using vactor trucks to look beneath the surface – this one was on 34th near Trenton:
Comments in our previous discussion brought up a troubled city raingarden project in Ballard; Petrocelli says the research and testing program for this one is designed to head off those kinds of problems. Meantime, the community meeting about what’s happening with the proposal is coming up at 6:30 pm April 6 at Westside School .
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