West Seattle, Washington
31 Sunday
(Cameraphone added 5:23 pm, generator truck at Lowman Beach)
Just got word from King County Wastewater Treatment that, as often happens in power outage situations, this one triggered an overflow at the Murray Avenue pump station by Lowman Beach. The county estimates 40,000 gallons of wastewater overflowed for about 15 minutes before they got a portable generator going so the normal pumping could continue. They’ve posted signs on the shore, however, warning of possible contamination. (Added: We talked with Annie Kolb-Nelson at the county; she confirms Lowman still doesn’t have an emergency generator – that’s part of the CSO projects, with a meeting coming up March 29.) Read on for the full news release:Read More
(scroll down for the latest updates)
(sailboat under tow between northern Lincoln Park and Vashon – that’s what drew the helicopters)
2:22 PM: Just went out a few minutes ago in Upper Fauntleroy. The forecast had called for wind up to 25 mph and it’s been kicking up for about the past half-hour. So far we have outage reports from Morgan Junction and Westwood (35th/Trenton), too. California/Fauntleroy intersection is out but it looks like it doesn’t go further north of the California/Graham intersection. Morgan Junction businesses appear to be out. We also have word of a sailboat that’s run aground and is getting battered by wind north of Lincoln Park, toward the south end of Beach Drive. (added 3:51, Rod’s photo of the sailboat – at left with the tug, with Coast Guard to the right)
Meantime, we’re also monitoring power reports via Facebook and Twitter – north West Seattle seems OK so far.
2:36 PM UPDATE: More than 2,700 customers affected, according to City Light (boundaries listed here, though they’re not always precise). And an update on the sailboat – it’s being towed in. We’ll have visuals in a bit. Other areas affected by the outage, according to WSB’er reports, include High Point. If you’re wondering about the helicopter(s) – they were/are checking out the sailboat situation.
2:48 PM UPDATE: Just talked to Scott Thomsen in City Light’s media department. Ours is the latest wind-related outage – some elsewhere in the city have been fixable fast, when crews determine where a wire went down or a tree went into a wire – this one hasn’t been traced to the source just yet so it’s too soon to say exactly how long it’ll take for the power to come back. (A concurrent and similarly sized outage in Greenwood was fixed within minutes, according to City Light’s latest online update.)
2:58 PM UPDATE: FYI if you’re not in West Seattle – at work off the peninsula, etc. – the wind has died way down, though the power’s still out (again, it seems to be Morgan Junction/Upper Fauntleroy/High Point/part of Westwood/Gatewood, etc. – no reports of outages on the northern half of the peninsula).
3:10 PM: Power just came back on in High Point, according to both David Ginsberg via Twitter and also what we saw while passing through 35th/Morgan. Still out here at HQ. Again, still seems that north West Seattle was relatively unscathed – a flicker here and there, and Gretchen at Square One Books (WSB sponsor) in Jefferson Square said they also lost it briefly – plus, in comments, Angel says all’s well in the Puget Ridge area. Morgan Junction business area — at least around the intersection — is BACK ON, says Angela, who’s at Tully’s (wi-fi too, she reports).
3:56 PM: Hour and a half now, for those of us still out. Gatewood/south Morgan Junction/Upper Fauntleroy/part of Westwood still the main spots – Beveridge Place (the actual street/neighborhood by the pub of the same name) says they’re still out. Also note that some intersections are still affected, like 35th/Holden, so if you come this way, drive carefully. No formal update from City Light yet but we’re about to call and check in to see if they’ve traced the longrunning part of the outage. As for the weather, Rhonda from The Mortgage Porter (WSB sponsor) points out that a wind advisory remains in effect for the city till 6 pm – though things have been quiet here for quite some time now.
4:20 PM: Two hours out now. Just checked back with City Light’s Scott Thomsen – he says 1,650 customers are still without power in the West Seattle area – crews are working along Gatewood Road and “bringing people on behind them” as they go along – no formal ETA for everybody, though. Also note that any “official” boundaries you see listed anywhere, even on the City Light site, are only approximations – that’s why the firsthand reports that you provide are so important – and we do our best to go out and verify, too. They do not have equipment enabling a precise read on exactly who is out where – that’s technology they’re working on for the future.
5:02 PM: Our power briefly flickered back on – then off. At the same time a few minutes ago, High Point went off again – then, we’re told, back on. Meantime, King County Wastewater Treatment reveals that Murray Pump Station at Lowman Beach lost power and overflowed – see that story here. And the sun’s out. We’re checking now on major intersections without power – 35th/Thistle, for starters.
5:40 PM: We’re back! How about you?
6:30 PM: City Light confirms “all but a few” are back. They’re blaming the outage on “part of a tree.”
Talked with Seattle Public Utilities‘ Andy Ryan a little while ago to follow up on the Seaview water break that turned into a gas-line break (as chronicled here last night). First we asked about the timeline and response, since commenters had wondered about that: Ryan says they got the call at 11:05 am yesterday, “water in the street.” It was “logged as priority 8” – one step down from level 9, which requires response within an hour; in this case, he says, it took a crew two hours, and they arrived at 1:03 pm. One commenter wondered about furloughs (the city is requiring some because of budget cuts); that had nothing to do with it – it was a union crew, and they’re not affected by furloughs. As for what broke the water main – it’s a 71-year-old line, which is not old by SPU standards; it’s cast iron and they can last up to 200 years. Ryan says it appears a rock got lodged between the water line and a sewer line running right beneath it. So why did repair crews wind up rupturing a gas line? “A new gas main had been placed there but wasn’t accurately marked on the map,” Ryan says, “so our crews found the old one, but the new one wasn’t where it was supposed to be – and got ‘nicked’. Our maps are usually pretty good.” Again, as we reported at 5:30 this morning, the repairs were complete and water service restored in the early-early-morning hours. (Monday evening photo courtesy Doug B)
(Photo by Doug B, added 7:43 pm)
6:38 PM: Thanks to our friends at Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) for the tip – a water break at 49th/Brandon in Seaview is affecting traffic and neighbors. Brandon westbound is closed at 48th, and 49th southbound is one lane at Brandon, where crews are working. Not sure how many homes are without water, but we just got a note from Steve at 49th and Findlay who says it’s out at his house (that’s a block south of the break). 7:41 PM UPDATE: There’s also a gas leak in the area (49th/Canada), and one commenter says it is related to the water-line repair work. So if you don’t have to go through this area – stay away TFN. (Thanks to the neighbors who are posting on-the-scene updates in the comment section.) 9:39 PM UPDATE: We’re at the scene – it’s a 16-inch water line that’s broken. At least one TV crew (KING5) is there too. Working to get the latest info. 9:51 PM UPDATE: SFD says the gas line work should be wrapped up in an hour. Here’s one of the pieces of heavy equipment that just arrived:
10:25 PM UPDATE: We’re heading back out there to check again, but while there a short time ago, SFD stressed that while the smell is bad, the gas that leaked is NOT at anything approaching a dangerous level. 10:42 PM UPDATE: From the scene – the gas line is fixed. Now the water work resumes, and that’s expected to take all night. Water is out from Brandon south to Graham, though we don’t have a count of how many homes are affected. We do know seven homes lost gas service, according to SFD Captain Mike Milam:
5:30 AM: As Wsguy also confirms in the comments, the water is back on – we just went down to check on the situation; one crew is left, filling in the hole:
(Sign at Lowman Beach after Murray Pump Station overflow in 2007)
There wasn’t much turnout last fall when we covered two meetings about upcoming “CSO” – Combined Sewer Overflow – projects that King County is pursuing in connection with two pump stations on West Seattle shores, Barton (by the Fauntleroy ferry dock) and Murray (by Lowman Beach). One recent commenter wondered if perhaps the longer-than-expected 2-year duration of the 53rd Avenue Pump Station expansion project on Alki might lead to more interest in projects like these. With that in mind – here are two meeting dates just announced by King County: 6 pm March 18 for the Barton project, 6 pm March 29 for the Murray project, both at Southwest Community Center. The CSO projects are meant to come up with ways to keep stormwater and sewage from flowing into Puget Sound during storms that overload the system; the county is looking for opinions on the various ways of making that happen – which could even involve building big storage tanks near the existing pump stations (both of which are underground), to store the excess water until the weather eases. Read more about the CSO-control program here.
This one’s gone around before, and Seattle City Light says it’s going around again – people getting phone calls from someone claiming to be an SCL employee and demanding a credit-card number, even in some cases a Social Security number, to prevent allegedly imminent disconnection of service. This item on SCL’s Power Lines site explains how to tell who’s legit and who’s not.
Checking the WSB archives, it was one year ago today that we broke the story of Seattle City Light‘s massive burned-out-streetlight backup: 3,500. We went looking for that story because City Light has asked us (and others) to share an update on the streetlight situation from Superintendent Jorge Carrasco and City Councilmember Bruce Harrell. It’s published on SCL’s Power Lines site; their update says the situation a year ago was even more dire than we’d been told at the time (they mention 8,000 burnouts and a six-month wait in “early 2009”), but they are now committed to a 10-day turnaround. They’re also embarking on a federally funded project to replace 5,000 of the city’s 80,000 streetlights with LEDs; they hope to eventually replace them all. In the meantime, if you’ve got streetlight trouble, they point you to this online form; you also can call 206-684-7056. (WSB photo taken today during streetlight work spotted at 42nd/Dakota)
That photo was just tweeted by Mike Heavey (@mjheavey) – who says the barricades have just been moved at the 53rd Avenue Pump Station Project site on Alki, and the path’s open. So the promise made at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting by King County’s Martha Tuttle – that the path would open today – has been kept. Next up, as reported in our story – about a month of road work to rebuild the outside lane.
(Tuesday photo of 53rd Avenue project site, by Chas Redmond)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“This project has been a long haul,” King County Wastewater Treatment rep Martha Tuttle told Thursday night’s Alki Community Council meeting, referring to the 2-years-and-not-done-yet 53rd Avenue Pump Station Project.
Uneasy laughter flowed through the room.
“It has been two years that we’ve been in construction and the fatigue the community feels is strong. We do apologize for that,” she continued. But she had some good news.
Beth asked that this be passed along so others in her area would know:
The water for a block or so (it’s at our home at 40th & Hinds [map]) is brown. Apparently it is rust in the water & in response to an emergency call today that they had at 39th & Hanford. The lady at the city of Seattle Water dept said that it should go away within a few hours but she recommended not drinking the water with the high amount of rust in it. We thought we had a major plumbing issue & imagine everyone in the neighborhood is concerned about that as well.
Here’s the official city information on what causes water discoloration and what you should do if it happens at your home.
The previously projected completion dates have come and gone. So what’s up with the 53rd Avenue Pump Station expansion project that King County Wastewater Treatment‘s been working on at Alki for two years now? If you have questions – here’s your chance to get firsthand answers. KCWTD’s Martha Tuttle is booked as the guest speaker, with Q/A, at this Thursday’s Alki Community Council meeting, 7 pm, Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds). (Our most recent update on the project was this story from December, when the county provided some underground photos and said they were still going through a “long punch list” with the contractor.)
On a slow-ish Saturday afternoon, you can meander over to the WSB Forums if you haven’t already. Among the current discussion – Tigger and others are trying to figure out why their utility bills suddenly jumped. (Also browsable, the 100+ West Seattle-based sites that feed into the Blogs page – their latest entries are linked here.)
Tonight when Morgan Community Association meets at 7 pm at The Kenney, the agenda includes an update on the area pump stations operated by King County Wastewater Treatment. That’s been planned for quite some time – but there’s something new to talk about, after this news release sent out by the county today, regarding trouble with a “tidal surge” – read on:Read More
A few people have asked about the full-surround scaffolding around the easternmost water tank at Myrtle Reservoir (map), most recently Scott C, so we checked with Seattle Public Utilities for the latest. No, the water tank’s not coming down – though the nearby reservoir has been covered (with some of the newly created land to be turned into a park later this year), the above-ground tanks remain in service. We recalled a bit of info about the work at the water tanks involving painting, and indeed, that’s all that’s happening, according to SPU’s Elaine Yeung:
Yes, we’re repainting the inside and outside of Myrtle Tank #2 (i.e. the larger of the two above-ground water tanks). The final color of the tank will match the smaller tank which was painted earlier in 2009. Some of the work on the interior began back in November 2009 but as you noted, scaffolding is going up for the exterior work. Crews will enclose the structure within a temporary plastic cover during paint removal, priming, and painting to contain dust and paint overspray and protect the tank from inclement weather. At this point, the repair work is scheduled to be complete in April 2010.
Thanks to Jillian for sharing that view of this year’s Space Needle fireworks from West Seattle – one more look as the holiday season winds down this weekend with tasks like taking down the Christmas tree. Since this weekend is prime time for many to, shall we say, de-decorate, we wanted to mention this once more: The city has two ways for you to recycle trees. If you don’t mind some chopping and bundling, there’s curbside pickup; if you’d like to just recycle it in one piece, your tree is more likely to fit the guidelines of what’s acceptable for dropoff at the South Recycling and Disposal Station over in South Park. See the guidelines here; here’s a map to the disposal station (open 8 am-5:30 pm daily).
“On Board” asked in the WSB Forums the other day what’s up with the Alki Pump Station project – since the most recent projected completion date — this month — is about to pass. We checked with King County Wastewater Treatment Division and renewed our request for project photos, too – resulting in the photos in this story, which are all courtesy of the county – these are the new pumps:
Now, the status: The contractor and the county are still “going down a long ‘punch list’,” according to KCWT spokesperson Martha Tuttle. The county insists there have been no particular setbacks that have stretched out the underground pump-station expansion project months longer than the original projection, and Tuttle says they’re frustrated too. There have been a few speedbumps, including the need to build an underground “wall” around some pipes, not an original part of the plan. But otherwise, what they’re doing now is making sure, item by item, that everything works:
The hope is that once the equipment’s moved away and the barriers come down, they don’t have to go back to have anything re-done. They’re not announcing a new estimated date, either – we said, can you say whether it’s more like weeks or months? Weeks more likely than months, but that’s as specific as they’ll get; they’ve put together an official update flyer which says work on pavement restoration – new sidewalks, etc. – will continue into January.
Thanks to the WSB’er who called a few minutes ago with word of a power outage in the Charlestown Hill area [map]. Seattle City Light hadn’t confirmed it at that time, but has now: 68 customers; a crew is on the way, no word yet what caused it; they’re not promising restoration before 3 am. While the boundaries listed by SCL are not usually precise, here’s what they’re listing – between SW Spokane and SW Andover, and between 51st SW and 59th SW. 4:29 AM UPDATE: Just checked the City Light hotline again and there’s no longer an “outage message” recording, which should mean everybody’s back on.
Brian at TouchTech Systems in The Junction pointed out this work under way today in the 4500 block of California SW and wondered if it’s related to future business changes in the empty storefront that used to be part of CAPERS and is expected to become home to a Wing Dome and TBA business. However, according to city permits, it’s just “side sewer” repair work.
12:36 AM: Just received two reports via e-mail and text (thanks!) that there’s a power outage in Highland Park, apparently coinciding with power flickers in other parts of West Seattle, including here at WSB HQ in Upper Fauntleroy. Checking for more info – let us know if it’s affecting you too. One of our HP tipsters, “westseattledood,” says it “looks dark for blocks.” 12:48 AM: Seattle City Light says about 1,900 “customers” – homes/businesses – are out of power in Highland Park and White Center. Sounds like they haven’t traced the cause yet, either, as the recording asks anyone with information on what might have triggered it to stay on the line to talk with a dispatcher. 1 AM UPDATE: SCL projects the outage might last till 4 am but still doesn’t have word of its cause. 2:09 AM UPDATE: We have one report of power coming back on, at 16th/Myrtle. 2:33 AM: City Light has taken the outage info off its hotline – haven’t confirmed yet if that means everybody’s back on or not. 4:35 AM: City Light confirms everyone’s back on (although the time mentioned in their online update doesn’t entirely synch with what people were telling us earlier this morning) and says the outage was caused by a “cable failure.”
Wondering how much longer you’ll see all that on the east end of the main stretch of Alki Beach? When last we got an estimated end-of-project date from King County Wastewater Treatment for the Alki pump station project, they expected it would wrap up this month. With the month almost over, we checked back. The project is now in what you might call the home stretch – it’s in the “commissioning” stage, which means a lot of testing to make sure it works, but that could take a few more weeks before you start seeing the equipment pull out, according to county spokesperson Martha Tuttle. She also said they hope to set up a public open house at the site for people “to be able to go down the stairs and take a look,” but no date’s set yet. The work was expected to take about 20 months when it started in early 2008; so far it’s lasted almost 22.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this Thanksgiving Day,” says the Seattle City Light recording, updating the second West Seattle outage in two days — last night, the Westwood Village area; today, almost 300 customers (given the area, we’d guess almost entirely residential) in southern Arbor Heights/The Arroyos. City Light says this one is the fault of an underground problem, that crews will be called in from home, and that power may not be fully restored till 6 pm. (Some may have it back already – it was shortlived for one person who e-mailed us, anyway.) 2:44 PM UPDATE: In comments here and a post on our Facebook wall, we’ve gotten reports of other short outages in areas including Lincoln Park and Gatewood.
Finally got some official information about a power outage in the Westwood Village vicinity. We got a text about a “spotty” outage in a few places at the center earlier tonight – went over and looked around, didn’t see any obvious evidence of an outage. Seattle City Light didn’t have anything on its outage line. But now they’ve sent a short tweet saying 148 customers – businesses and residences – are affected by the outage, and they may not have the power back till 3 am. In a comment on this morning’s holiday supermarket hours story, “Voodoo” reports that QFC has had some effects – including the ice-cream case.
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