 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Contents this page were published in the November/December, 1997 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1997 WFP Collective, Inc.
Walking towards Lake Washington along the southern border of the North Ballfields at Magnuson Park, one walks beside a channel dominated by reed canary-grass and other wet-loving plants. High water has swept dead grass into the lower branches of the plants that line this channel. To one's left, the shouts of excited ball-players. To the right, the quiet sogginess of an unmowed channel. Suddenly, the apparent wetland channel comes to an end as one stubs one's toe on a ten-pound chunk of concrete - the outlier of a football-sized area of fill that has raised the elevation here by at least three feet. This is the newest playfield in the North Playfields Complex of Sand Point/Magnuson Park.
To this reporter, a wetland scientist for seven years, there are obvious wetland vegetation and indicators of wetland hydrology in a channel leading to the fill area, two of three parameters that define an area as jurisdictional wetland. How could the apparent outlet of such a channel have been filled?
History of the Site
Magnuson Park was under water until 1916, when Lake Washington was lowered ten feet on completion of the Ship Canal. In 1924, the military began building Sand Point Naval Air Station on the site - eventually comprising 500 acres of runways, hangars, and other buildings. The site was leveled and its marshes, ponds, and swamps were filled. In the early 1970s the Navy gave several hundred acres to the City of Seattle Parks Department (Parks).
Parks responded by creating the 1975 Sand Point Park Master Plan in an era when the nature and importance of wetlands was poorly understood - the National Environmental Policy Act of 1972 was in its infancy, and regulations governing wetland fill often embryonic). This Master Plan was updated and approved by the City Council in 1993 (the 1993 Community Reuse Plan for Sand Point), which incorporates the 1975 Master Plan. Parks employees contacted for this article stated that the area under discussion was mapped as a sports field in the 1975 Master Plan, and carried forward through subsequent Plans.
Improving Playability
In 1993 Margaret Anthony (Director, North Division, Seattle Parks) committed to completing the North Playfields Complex. Parks held a public meeting about the site, attended by fewer than ten people, at which Anthony stated “there was a concern about the wetlands issue. The ballfield completion operation began in spring 1994, and moved into high gear in early 1997. Why was fill necessary? Anthony stated that "since the entire park is just low, it would improve the playability of these fields if we brought it [the level] up three feet." Chris Williams of North Division Operations said the area drained poorly, and needed to be filled to drain well enough to play on. Both employees invoked the children of Seattle who are turned away from ballfields every day, and both deplored the insufficiency of ballfields in the City.
Did Parks know of possible wetlands? Both Anthony and Williams declared that wet areas observed at the Park were wet because water perched on old concrete runways. Neither, however, mentioned any break-up of runway concrete beneath the site in question.
Permits and Regulations
Were permits required for this fill? Jack Kennedy of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over all US wetlands, and requires permits for even one-third of an acre of wetland fill, stated that no permit had been issued for fill at Sand Point/Magnuson Park within the past five years (a permit's lifetime).
Anthony stated that in 1993 a trusted member of her staff (landscape architect Rosemary Wills) assured her that Parks had the proper authorization to begin filling the site. Williams stated that he had been informed that no environmental impact statement or determination of non-significance was required, and that Parks had checked with the Seattle Department of Construction and Land Use (DCLU) in early 1997, who said that permits were not required. Allan Kules of DCLU stated that Parks qualified for a permit exemption for a cumulative volume of 100 cubic yards over the site's lifetime, or three feet in elevation change, but that his office had no record that the area might be wetland. Though the City has excellent Sensitive Areas regulations to protect wetlands, these are apparently not invoked where no wetland is recorded.
|
"We'll do whatever we can to develop wetlands and the environment." |
But no formal wetland determination was ever performed on this or any other site at Magnuson.
Every Parks employee was aware of the necessity to be sensitive to the environment. All adhered faithfully to the 1975 Master Plan and its updates. But where no official map of sensitive areas exists, opportunities for being sensitive to these areas must logically be few. Ms. Anthony displayed, in this reporter's opinion, a common result of such environmental ignorance when she stated that there was "a lot of sensitivity on our part to protect the environment. We'll do whatever we can to develop wetlands and the environment." The wet area, possibly wetlands, that are now filled have been developed.
Other apparent wetland areas in the Park are also slated for development. Without an inventory of Parks's natural areas, or recognition of their value, open space and playfields will continue to be synonymous. Parks will keep delivering the services citizens tell them they want - level playing fields, parking areas, tennis courts, and other right-angled recreation opportunities.
In a finite world, we won't all get what we want. The losers in the present scenario are the wild creatures of Seattle, like the great blue herons, snipe, marsh wrens, marsh hawks, and ducks observed on and around the site before filling. And the generations of Seattleites who will never see them there.
Anna Mockler is a wetlands scientist who lives in Seattle.
|
|
|
|
|