Wondering what that Seattle Public Utilities crew in your neighborhood is up to? Might be this. SPU tells WSB that its crews will be around West Seattle for the next few months, doing “routine sewer cleanings and inspections”:

Seattle Public Utilities is cleaning and inspecting sewer pipes throughout your neighborhood. This work helps reduce sewer overflows and identify locations that need repairs or additional maintenance. Homes and businesses will continue to receive normal sewer services.

Crews will use water from fire hydrants to clean the pipes. Using fire hydrants can cause discolored water. Residents experiencing discolored water should run the water for two minutes before drinking.

SCHEDULE

Crews will be in one location for no more than 2 hours. Regular work hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

ANTICIPATED IMPACTS

Homes and businesses will continue to receive normal sewer services. However, you can expect:

 Temporary lane closures
 Temporary parking restrictions
 Temporary street closures
 Utility trucks and noise
 Discolored water (Safe to drink)

This is *not* part of the ongoing pipe-flushing work, which also can lead to temporary discoloration – that’s for water lines, not sewer lines. And there can be other causes of discolored water, so if it does happen at your residence, let SPU know – 206-386-1800.

(Photo courtesy Seattle City Light)

If you use the West Seattle Bridge east of 99 at night, it’s a landmark of sorts – Seattle City Light‘s big red neon sign. Soon, its neon will be gone. Here’s SCL’s announcement:

Seattle City Light has contracted with Seattle-based Western Neon Custom Sign Builders to replace the neon lights in the iconic City Light signs at its South Service Center at 4th Ave. S. and S. Spokane Street with LED rope lighting, beginning July 26.

The iconic signs will go dark during the project, which is expected to last up to two weeks. Once complete, the new lights will resemble the classic amber color of the original signs, which were built in the 1920s. The signs do not have Seattle landmark status, but they are the last remaining pair of full “CITY LIGHT” signs from that era. City Light historically had similar signs at its Yesler Substation and control center, the Cedar Falls powerhouse and the Lake Union steam plant.

“Historic signs give continuity to public spaces, becoming part of the community memory. They sometimes become landmarks in themselves, almost without regard for the building to which they are attached, or the property on which they stand,” said City Light Historic Resource Specialist and Architectural Historian Rebecca Ossa, quoting from the National Park Service’s Preservation Brief on Historic Signs. “This project allows City Light to preserve a bit of its early history while demonstrating energy efficient lighting for the thousands of people who pass by the sign every day.”

Replacement of the neon lights in the South Service Center signs is needed because they have outlived their expected life span and have become hard to maintain. Using LED lighting will save energy and save money while maintaining the historical look of the signs.

A team of employees from City Light’s Facilities and Customer Energy Solutions divisions and its Lighting Design Lab designed the changes. The last upgrade to the signs was in the late 1980s.

The City Light signs are actually 18 separate signs. Each letter is its own, separate sign. One set faces west and one set faces east toward Interstate 5.

If you live near any of these projects, we hope you’ve received the notification flyers already. Otherwise, you might have seen “no parking” signage and wondered – so we’re passing along the news from Seattle Public Utilities. Follow the “official notice” links for full details, including maps:

TODAY: In the 1600 block of Edgewood SW in North Admiral, SPU expects to start emergency repair work today on a broken sewer line and “roadway void.” Here’s the official notice.

THIS WEEK: On 46th SW north of Hudson, SPU expects to start sewer-repair work in two spots starting this week. Here’s the official notice.

NEXT WEEK:: One week from today, SPU expects to start work on mainline sewer repair along 50th SW between Spokane and Charlestown. Here’s the official notice.

FIRST REPORT, 3:33 AM: Just a few minutes ago, the power suddenly went out here on the Fauntleroy/Gatewood line. Anyone else? Not on the City Light outage map yet.

3:38 AM: Now it is. More than 3,770 customers (customer = home or business). Looks like roughly Brandon on the north, Henderson on the south.

3:51 AM: No word yet from City Light re: the cause, and we’re not hearing anything related on the scanner. SCL map now suggests a 10 am restoration time, but please keep in mind, that’s only a guesstimate – could be sooner, could be later.

4:05 AM: Though City Light’s Twitter feed is insisting on saying the outage is in Delridge, it’s not. No part of Delridge involved. High Point, Sunrise Heights, Upper Morgan, Gatewood, Fauntleroy, a bit of Westwood.

4:32 AM: Our power just came back on, in Upper Fauntleroy. (added) From comments, sounds like most other affected areas are back too, but the City Light map hasn’t caught up just yet.

4:40 AM: And now it has – outage over after a little more than an hour. Via Twitter, SCL says the outage was the result of “a bad cable.”

(UPDATED 3:49 PM to clarify that the average bill will go up $1 – your bill may vary)

(Seattle City Light image: Gorge Dam)
The average electricity bill is going up about a dollar starting next month. Seattle City Light‘s announcement explains the surcharge it’s about to add, and might be keeping for a few years. In short – blame it on the weather:

Low revenue from the surplus energy Seattle City Light sells to other utilities has triggered a 1.5 percent surcharge on electricity rates, starting in August.

City Light generates power at its hydroelectric projects. When the utility has more electricity than its customers need, it sells that power to other utilities and uses the money to keep prices low for its retail customers. For 2016, City Light anticipated $60 million in revenue from such wholesale energy sales, but the utility is on track to earn only about $43.5 million as a result of warm spring weather at a time of low prices on the wholesale energy market. The warm weather melted mountain snow earlier than is typical, which meant City Light’s hydroelectric projects were producing surplus energy at a time of lower demand and lower prices than the utility might have seen in June or July.

To make up the difference between what was expected in the budget and actual revenue, City Light draws from a rate stabilization account created in 2010 to offset the volatility that comes with generating and selling hydropower. If the amount in the account dips to $90 million or below, a 1.5 percent surcharge is automatically applied to every customer’s bill until the account is refilled to $100 million.

The rate stabilization account had $89.1 million in it June 30, which triggers a surcharge that will be applied to customer bills, starting in August. The surcharge will add $1 to the typical residential customer bill every month. This is the first time an automatic surcharge has been triggered since the rate stabilization account was created.

Based on current financial forecasts, City Light projects that the surcharge could stay in place into 2019. Should the rate stabilization account’s balance fall to $80 million or below, the surcharge would automatically increase to 3 percent.

Once the account balance is refilled to $100 million, the surcharge is automatically removed. If strong surplus energy sales ever push the rate stabilization account’s balance to more than $125 million, the City Council can choose to reduce rates, have City Light pay down existing debt or direct the utility to pay for capital expenses with cash instead of borrowing money.

Thanks for the tips – the City Light map now verifies a small power outage in a residential area northeast of The Junction, near 39th and Genesee. It lists “bird/animal” as the cause, and resident Keri verifies that, saying, “It’s unusual for our power to be out — we almost always survive the storms and other outages. Turns out a crow took out the transformer. It’s going to take a few hours to get it back on.”

The combined-sewer-overflow project across from Lowman Beach is about to generate extra noise for up to three days. Even if you’re not right next to the project, sound carries, so take note of this announcement from the King County Wastewater Treatment District:

Starting Wednesday, June 29, King County’s contractor for the Murray CSO Control Project will begin connecting the Murray Pump Station to the same electrical power system as the underground storage tank.

The connection is needed to ensure a more reliable power source for the pump station when the facility becomes operational this fall. Crews will use a temporary generator to the site to maintain power to the pump station while new electrical connections are put in place. The temporary generator will be placed next to the Murray Pump Station in the southeast corner of Lowman Beach Park.

This work is expected to take 48 hours to complete and will require the temporary generator to run continuously overnight through Friday, July 1. Increased noise levels from the generator are expected. Noise from the generator may be more noticeable at night when ambient noise levels are lower. The contractor will take measures to mitigate the noise emitted by the generator to the extent possible and will monitor noise periodically during the operation. The generator will be placed as far away from the nearest residences as possible.

A small crew will work inside the facility building at night to complete the power upgrade using handheld equipment. Indoor work will be limited to quiet, low-impact activities. You may notice lights on inside the building and crews going to or coming from the facility building.

Questions or concerns? Project hotline: 206-205-9186, around the clock.

1:28 PM: Thanks to Todd for the tip via Twitter: 92 homes in Upper Alki, mostly west of Schmitz Park, are without electricity, according to the City Light map, which says the cause is still under investigation.

2:29 PM: According to the outage map, the power’s back on.

Just in from the King County Wastewater Treatment District, as the Murray Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project across from Lowman Beach continues advancing toward completion by year’s end:

King County’s contractor for the Murray CSO Control Project will begin working on Sundays inside the facility building starting as early as this Sunday, June 19th.

Work will occur during daytime hours and will be limited to quiet, indoor activities. A small crew will be conducting electrical and mechanical work inside the building using handheld equipment. This work will not exceed noise levels outlined by City noise ordinance. You may notice crews going to or coming from the site.

Thank you for your continued patience during construction. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns by email, by calling the project hotline at 206-205-9186, or by stopping by our booth at the Morgan Junction Community Festival this Saturday from 10 am-5 pm.

After an unannounced three-week break, Seattle Public Utilities crews will resume flushing work this weekend, continuing to clear local water mains of sediment (mostly rust buildup). SPU’s Ingrid Goodwin sent this progress report with word of what’s next, including the map you see above:

SPU will resume water main flushing in West Seattle Sunday night, June 19, starting on SW Donald Street between California Avenue SW and 44th Avenue SW.

We took a three-week break from flushing to allow our staff to assess our progress, make adjustments and plan for the next sequence of flushes.

To date, the SPU flushing crew has flushed about 10 miles of pipe in West Seattle to minimize discolored water.

Flushing results have been very positive: water is flushed until clear and the crew is measuring chlorine and turbidity (cloudiness) throughout the process to make sure water quality standards are met at the end of each flush.

The attached map [above] shows the area that has been completed. We anticipate finishing the remaining sections of Area 1 (shaded in purple) this summer.

In the fall, SPU anticipates starting to flush Area 2, which will be in the 498 pressure zone, from approximately Myrtle Reservoir north to SW Spokane Street.

SPU reiterates that if you have any water-quality issues – even if it’s brown water that the flushing might have stirred up on its way to clearing things out – please call them, 24/7, at 206-386-1800.

P.S. For more backstory on The Big Flush, here’s our previous report.

Seattle Public Utilities says it will be repairing a sewer line along 35th SW between Juneau and Raymond starting next Tuesday (May 31st). The flyer it’s circulating in the area says, “The mainline at this location is damaged and requires replacement. Homes and businesses will continue to receive normal service during the repair.” They expect the work, at five spots on the line (shown above), to take about two weeks, with crews there 7 am-4 pm weekdays. While service will continue, there will be mobility effects, including parking restrictions, limited access to driveways during construction work hours, and the closure of “the center two lanes of 35th SW” while the work is under way.

(WSB photo)

Thanks to the texter who tipped us about this: City Light is repairing a pole on eastbound Admiral Way near Belvidere right now after a driver hit it in the 5 am hour. Police told us at the scene just now that the driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries; two houses nearby are without power. The aftermath of the crash is blocking one eastbound lane.

2:04 PM: Just checked after a tip, and the Seattle City Light outage map confirms 108 customers (homes) are without electricity in The Arroyos (and part of south Arbor Heights), as of about 20 minutes ago. We’re checking – more to come.

3:17 PM: SCL says the cause of the outage is “equipment failure.” Their current guesstimate for restoration is just before 6 pm – but please remember that it’s only a guess; might happen later, or sooner.

11:26 PM: After almost 10 hours, the outage continues, and the restoration guesstimate is now 4:40 am.

2:50 PM SATURDAY: After 24 hours, the outage ended a short time ago, per a tweet from Kate.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Three weeks down, “several more months” to go.

Most late nights and early morning, somewhere in West Seattle, Seattle Public Utilities workers are flushing another section of our area’s aged water mains, to tackle the “brown water” problems that have vexed customers around the area.

To get the root cause – rust and sediment – out of the system, however, stirs it up in some spots – so, as was the case for a reader who e-mailed us early today, it gets temporarily worse in order to get better.

Meantime, we’ve checked with SPU for an update on how the project – first previewed here March 31st – is going, including one change in the plan, plus we have a firsthand look at what happens at a flushing scene:

Read More