Flooding, quality focus of Ballinger agreement
Published 11:49 am Thursday, February 21, 2008
Lake Forest Park
Working to avoid a flood like the region experienced last December is one of Lake Forest Park Mayor Dave Hutchinson’s goals.
“My big issue is we don’t have a repeat of that,” he said. “Since I’ve been in office we’ve had two (floods) now and many families have lost a lot of money and memorabilia. I want to stop it from happening again.”
Hutchinson is hopeful a solution to the flooding will come from supporting the development of an interlocal agreement for watershed management plans between the cities of Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline. Lake Forest Park became the second city within the Greater Lake Ballinger basin region to approve a resolution for an interlocal agreement at the Feb. 14 council meeting. Edmonds City Council passed a similar resolution on Jan.22.
An interlocal agreement between the cities would build on three years of cooperation with surface water management between the four cities, said David Cline, Lake Forest Park city administrator. The work has been largely focused on water quality issues within Lake Ballinger, the headwaters to McAleer Creek that flow from Mountlake Terrace through Shoreline and Lake Forest Park to Lake Washington and the Puget Sound.
A priority for Lake Forest Park, Hutchinson said, is taking care of Lyon Creek, a waterway that flows out from Mountlake Terrace and through Lake Forest Park and converges with McAleer Creek when it reaches flood levels.Through an interlocal agreement, cities can meet and work collaboratively to improve water quality, seek funding and direction from governments to improve the habitat within the watersheds and reduce future flooding.
“It’s a good idea and we definitely ought to do it,” Shoreline’s assistant city manager Julie Modrzejewski said. “The thought is by having all the cities come together and by having that discussion we will hopefully influence our (legislators) who can help us fund basin studies.”
The Shoreline City Council is scheduled to discuss being part of the interlocal agreement at the April 7 meeting. Mountlake Terrace City Council will address the issue at its March 3 meeting.
“Lake Ballinger has been a priority for this city for years,” said John Caulfield, Mountlake Terrace city manager. “We’re just happy to see other communities are giving it the same priority as Mountlake Terrace.”
In addition to the interlocal agreement, each city is responsible for meeting requirements set by the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II municipal stormwater permit by the Department of Ecology.
Lake Forest Park City Council also approved a resolution on Feb. 14 to contract with Otak Engineering Inc. for $322,000 to meet NPDES compliance requirements and to aid in the development of a comprehensive surface water management plan for the city that will take the entire basin into account.
“The important objectives you’re looking at for your city need to be appropriated with the objectives they’re looking at in the upper watershed so the two can be merged together,” said Joe Simmler, senior project manager for Otak, Inc. “I know that habitat issues and water environmental issues are very important here.”
