Beach Drive updates: Boat debris gone soon; Harbor West sewage

Two updates from Beach Drive. First, the debris that once comprised a hand-built trimaran:

When we went by at midday today to find out the latest, we saw that boom around the wreckage. Bryan Flint from the state Department of Natural Resources tells WSB, “The containment boom was placed by the contractor to keep all the pieces in place. There is no petroleum leaking. The contractor was picking up the smaller pieces today and will be moving the bigger pieces tomorrow. If everything goes well they should have it all removed by tomorrow afternoon.” If you’re just tuning in to this saga, the debris are what’s left of a home-built trimaran that was given away at Shilshole; the man who took it wanted to tow it to Tacoma but got into trouble off West Seattle last week. The trimaran started breaking up in the water on the south side of the Harbor West Condos in the 3700 block of Beach Drive. After days of various travails, and with community help, the owner got his smaller power boat out of the water yesterday and towed it away on land (no sign of him, his van, or the small boat when we went by today), leaving behind the big-boat wreckage. The state says they always try to recover the costs of handling a mess like this, but they aren’t very hopeful, as the man’s reported lack of financial resources is partly what led to the problems in the first place.

Meantime, Cormorant Cove city-owned beach on the north side of Harbor West has another “CLOSED” sign up:

(Photo shared by Jodi)
That’s because of the building’s ongoing sewage leak, not believed to be related to the boat trouble (according to residents with whom we’ve spoken), but officially reported to the city over the weekend while all that was unfolding. Ingrid Goodwin from Seattle Public Utilities tells WSB, “SPU environmental compliance inspectors are investigating the leak to determine how much sewage may have leaked or is still leaking. Some of things they look at is how many breaks are in the line and how long the line may have been leaking. These are all questions we’ll need to work with the property owner to obtain answers, therefore it will take more time to determine the volume. Having said that, our main and immediate focus is working with the property owner to ensure that the broken line is repaired correctly as soon as possible. With a leak of this nature, we typical allow up to 10 days for the property owner to fix the problem, but that can vary depending on the case.”

7 Replies to "Beach Drive updates: Boat debris gone soon; Harbor West sewage"

  • David Hutchinson February 20, 2013 (9:26 pm)

    Same sign is up in a couple of places along Constellation Park further to the north.

  • Panda February 20, 2013 (10:09 pm)

    Wishing the tri-owner the best of luck. And a thanks to all for helping out.

  • Sonoma February 21, 2013 (1:26 am)

    Interesting that I always see units up for sale at Harbor West. Seems like such a NICE location, except for an occassional problem with sewage.

  • Delridge Believer February 21, 2013 (9:02 am)

    So was the sewer break noticed by the people (including DNR/SPU) working to remove the boat? If so then this ill-fated journey may have had the unintended consequence of discovering a larger ongoing environmental issue which could have been going on for much longer without being noticed!

  • let them swim February 21, 2013 (9:39 am)

    Delridge, I agree with you. A very interesting assessment of the situation. My questions are: Where are all the people that degraded the boat owner? Why are they not up in arms against raw sewage entering their lovely beach fronts? The
    people that howled against the boat owner seem to have disappeared. If it wasn’t for the boating accident who knows how long the leakage would have continued. And we’ll never know how long it’s been spewing raw sewage. I guess there is a silver lining in every cloud.

  • Scupper February 21, 2013 (10:28 am)

    Ironically, the skipper of the trimaran was the first to call in the sewage spilling from under the condos. As residents were pointing to his wreckage and asking for immediate removal, he was pointing to the sewage that was intermittently pumping out on the rocks.
    The City of Seattle spill response truck was not aware of the beached boats when they originally arrived at the scene. The driver called DNR to handle the fuel leakage from the small power boat.

  • let them swim February 21, 2013 (10:36 am)

    Thank-you Scupper, the Beach Blog has excellent photos of ongoing salvage.

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