{"id":30821,"date":"2022-07-29T18:18:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T22:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boatsetter.com\/boating-resources\/?p=30821"},"modified":"2022-07-29T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T22:19:13","slug":"clean-lake-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boatsetter.com\/boating-resources\/clean-lake-union","title":{"rendered":"Clean Lake Union: Practical, Natural Solutions | #MindYourWake Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Grey was sitting in his office in Seattle<\/a> when he saw something in the water in the marina right outside his window. It was an oil slick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really panicked, thinking it was a boat losing its fuel,\u201d he remembers. Since his company manages the marina on Lake Union, he and his partners ran out the door. To their great surprise, however, the slick wasn\u2019t from a yacht. It was from a catch basin in a parking lot adjacent to the lake. A pipe was sending street runoff and storm drain water straight into Lake Union, untreated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my \u2018aha\u2019 moment,\u201d Grey says. Being in the building and development business, he thought, \u201cIs there something we can do about this?\u201d<\/p>\n

That question was the genesis of what shortly thereafter became Clean Lake Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Boatsetter\u2019<\/u>s #MindYourWake sustainability initiatives.<\/a><\/p>\n

What is Clean Lake Union?<\/h2>\n

Fast forward a decade, and Clean Lake Union is successfully identifying locations for and funding installations of bio swales at catch basins around Lake Union and Lake Washington<\/a>. Bio swales\u2014also called bioretention swales\u2014are shallow, landscaped channels with sloped sides to capture, treat, and filter water runoff as it moves downstream. Clean Lake Union meets with success by collaborating with commercial land owners, developers, and the local government. Simultaneously, it\u2019s raising public awareness of the importance of keeping the Emerald City\u2019s waters clean.<\/p>\n

\"Bioretention<\/p>\n

A Seattle<\/a> native, further raising his family in Seattle, Grey knew back in 2012 that the city had been growing and changing tremendously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I always thought there was some fancy filtration system that would prevent this from happening,\u201d he says. \u201cThe answer is no. Seattle has a really old plumbing system, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, he continues, it has dedicated plumbing for stormwater, a separate one for sewage, and yet further plumbing for a combination of the two. Despite the increase in development and corresponding increase in sewage, \u201cwe haven\u2019t changed that system in the ground,\u201d Grey notes. \u201cIt\u2019s been in the ground for decades and decades.\u201d Therefore, he says, the system can\u2019t handle it, and overflow from the combination pipes pours into the lakes.<\/p>\n

Clean Lake Union\u2019s Projects<\/h2>\n

Clean Lake Union\u2019s first opportunity to make a difference came with a building Grey\u2019s company was developing alongside the Aurora Bridge. The historic bridge, passing over part of Lake Union, was contributing to a deadly problem. A friend sent Grey a video of Jennifer McIntyre, a professor at Washington State University, showing how bridge stormwater runoff killed migrating juvenile salmon \u201cwithin minutes\u201d of passing by the outflow pipe. It disturbed him to see water akin to black coffee, \u201ca toxic soup,\u201d pouring into the narrow cut of the lake. McIntyre also had research proving that \u201cgreening\u201d the infrastructure would reverse the damage.<\/p>\n

Grey\u2019s company, therefore, designed a series of bio swales, one leading into the other, as part of its project. It further designed downspout-like structures off the bridge.<\/p>\n