Little Bear Creek is too polluted to wade in. And don’t even think about drinking from it. It’s so polluted, state environmental officials are trying to get the people who live around it to help clean it up.
Like many streams in urban Snohomish County, the creek southeast of Mill Creek that drains into the Sammamish River near Bothell has unsafe levels of human and animal waste.
The waste comes from leaky septic tanks, livestock, pets and wildlife, said Anne Dettebach, a coordinator for the state’s waste-water quality program.
The state first reported that the creek had water-quality problems in 1993. Continued growth in the watershed that feeds the creek has only caused pollution levels climb since then.
“The little kids, wherever they are, they always find a way down to the water,” said Greg Stephens, president of the Little Bear Creek Protective Association, a neighborhood group that has worked to clean up the stream since 1978. “It’s just what kids do.”
Those kids shouldn’t come in contact with the water until the stream is cleaned up, Dettebach said.
The state tests for fecal coliform, a type of bacteria that indicates that bacteria and viruses that can cause breathing, stomach and eye problems could be in the water. Fecal coliform itself is not harmful.
Dettebach said a draft cleanup plan – released for public comment last week – gives the public a chance to weigh in on how it will help clean the stream. The final cleanup plan is due in June.
“We all have a share in causing the pollution, and each of us can help prevent it,” she said. “Government action alone won’t help clean these streams.”
Lukas Velush is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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