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Part 2 of a 5-part series. You can read part 1 here.
In the first article on Edmonds’ waters, I discussed what happens when old growth forests are replaced by development and rain becomes contaminated stormwater runoff. This article looks specifically at Edmonds’ streams and how our choices are changing them.
Edmonds has four streams that could support salmon, in addition to several smaller streams (see map above). The four salmon streams are Willow, Shellabarger, Shell and Perrinville Creeks, all of which drain toward Puget Sound.
The eastern portion of Edmonds’ drains to Hall’s Creek, then to Lake Ballinger and then to McAleer Creek (a salmon-bearing stream) and Lake Washington.
The streams are fed by rainfall that is filtered by soils but also by runoff from rooftops, streets and parking lots, which reaches streams and Puget Sound without detention or treatment.
Each of the four primary streams have man-made barriers to salmon passage. Perrinville Creek’s sediment trap, stream diversion structure and culvert under the railroad were installed (without permits) by the City of Edmonds (city) in the 1990s. A private owner dammed Shell Creek, just south of Caspers Street and west of 7th Avenue. The watershed for Willow Creek flows to Puget Sound, but is confined by a pipe along Edmonds Way (SR-104) installed by Washington State Department of Transport (WSDOT). Shellabarger Creek flows into the Edmonds Marsh, which connects to Puget Sound through a 1,600-foot city pipe. Both the WSDOT and city pipes are impassable for salmon.
None of the streams in Edmonds meet state water quality standards for multiple parameters. Untreated stormwater is, as discussed earlier, often highly toxic and any fish who succeed in passing barriers struggle to survive.
Each of the creeks are subject to more frequent and more extreme high flows created by runoff from pavement and rooftops. The creeks are also subject to lower “low flows” in between storms. The effects of increased runoff and decreased low flows are shown in the graphics below. (Kim Stephens and I developed these graphics while working on watershed planning projects in British Columbia 25 years ago.) With high flows, channels erode and widen flushing out salmon eggs. With low flows, there is little refuge habitat left for young salmon.
The problems are complicated by management practices. For example, the science is clear that a 200-foot buffer, or setback, on each side of a stream is necessary to provide adequate shade and insect life to sustain fish populations. The city lacks both consistent requirements for buffers and enforcement of ordinances created to protect critical areas. As a result, water temperatures are too high for fish and there is not adequate cover or food for fish.
The funds for stormwater management come from the City’s stormwater utility but the funds are primarily used for street maintenance. So, little is left for stormwater treatment, stream protection or restoration.
In summary, we routinely cause serious damage to the streams and wetlands: We change their flow, ignore the chemicals our activities flood into the water, and do not provide 200 feet of clearance when building around them. But there are steps we can take to reduce our impact, and create an Edmonds where streets, roads and salmon runs can co-exist.
Future articles will focus on the marine waters off Edmonds and the state of the Edmonds Marsh and Estuary. In the final article I will discuss realistic ways we can reduce our impact, while recognizing we cannot eliminate it.
— By Bill Derry
Edmonds resident Bill Derry is the president of the Pilchuck Audubon Society and a member of the Edmonds Marsh Estuary Advocates. He previously served six years on the board of directors for People for Puget Sound.
Thank you for your article. I look forward to learning more. It was alarming to read that “The funds for stormwater management come from the City’s stormwater utility but the funds are primarily used for street maintenance. So, little is left for stormwater treatment, stream protection or restoration.”
Obviously, Edmonds is not making the best choices right now. My heart breaks for the Orca who are the iconic mammal of the Pacific Northwest. We are losing them. I have trouble even going to the waterfront anymore, thinking about Orca mothers not being able to feed their babies because of, partially, the lack of salmon. Here is something humans can do to help — manage our stormwater better and protect our streams and wetlands, but we aren’t.
Thank you, Bill. May your comprehensive information result in changes for better management.
Most interesting, but the maps are a bit fuzzy. Could they be re-scanned and made available in a larger format?
The stream map is available on the city’s website in a large and clear format (we weren’t able to reproduce that size for our publication). But we did include an appropriate link in the map caption if folks want to view it that way. — Teresa
Thanks! I somehow overlooked the link – very good map!
Thanks so much for these reports. It’s so important right now to have sound facts and to understand what action we can take to improve things. We are part of the Miyawaki Forest group in Shoreline which has been keep our spirits up as we see more of these urban/suburban pocket forests being planted around the world.
This article is especially timely given the recent housing density mandates. If we aren’t managing our stormwater as well as we need to now, without widespread awareness and a commitment to action, the problem will only get worse. The survival of our threatened salmon and Orca populations and the health of the water we drink are at increased risk. Thank you, Bill Derry, for this informative and engaging series!
Special thanks and commendation to Mr. Derry for this wonderful and thought provoking series about our precious and badly abused water sheds. In the past and right now our scarce tax dollars have been and are being used to wage a legal fight against what most any environmentalist would consider good practices in terms of saving our fish habitat and correcting adverse conditions for wildlife in the Salish Sea. Our SEPA law seems to be something to be ignored or worked around for the current people we have in charge of our finances at the city, county and state levels of government and our young people will eventually pay a high price in quality of life for most of us putting up with this situation now.
Bill, Thank you for these bite-sized and easily digestible articles about topics that can complicated and confusing to the non-expert.
It’s easy to see the effects of high/low flow in Yost Park. With heavy precipitation, the stream can run hard and fast all the way up along Shell Valley, where it is essentially a storm water channel. In the park, this is what led to the undercutting of one of the footbridges, which has been closed for years now. In addition, organized groups of park users who are allowed to trample the stream bank has increased erosion and deposition of silt in the stream bed. Thus, the private dam is not the only impediment to Shell Creek ever being a viable salmon stream. It also has to do with the lack of stewardship upstream in Yost Park and along Shell Valley Road, where storm drains fail to capture much of the run off from the street. It’s hard to imagine this won’t be worsened by more development at Five Corners which sits athwart the complex network of water ways that eventually form Shell Creek, including Goodhope Pond.
“A private owner dammed Shell Creek, just south of Caspers Street and west of 7th Avenue.” This damning of Shell Creek was the fault of Mayor/staff in the early 1990s when the condominium design was approved. The damn was allowed despite that the Feds had funded a fish ladder built in 1989 under Shell Creek further upstream.
Today there is a 3 story 1000 sq.ft home, approved by Mayor/staff, between a steep slope and Shell Creek where the fish ladder is. When built by the Feds the (now private) deck was to serve as a “viewing” platform for the public to watch salmon as they swam upstream to spawn.
You state “The city lacks both consistent requirements for buffers and enforcement of ordinances created to protect critical areas.” Mayors/administrations have failed to enforce our Critical Areas Ordinance since at least this Shell Creek example.
Development has been proposed (Sandpiper) east of the sewage treatment plant. If approved, the development will be on these critical areas: Edmonds Marsh which extends east of SR 104, wetlands, a wildlife refuge, and a seismic hazard area. Edmonds’ staff deemed the application “complete” on 12-10-24 despite lack of required studies related to these critical areas.
Edmonds Mayor and staff continue to fail at “enforcement of ordinances created to protect critical areas.”
Joan is absolutely 100% correct in what she is saying. Our city Mayor and most of our Council are currently and willingly spending thousands of our hard earned tax dollars on legally trying to defeat every aspect of the SEPA laws and EIS requirements being actually enforced that they can. Plus, this is nothing new. They are just carrying on the grand tradition of, “build, Baby, build anywhere and everywhere,” no matter who or what it harms. Inappropriate and ill placed residential building started with the EbbTide and it’s been a never ending battle with the city movers and shakers ever since. The streams, the salmon, and the Orca’s (everyone professes to love) are dying a slow death as a result. It’s nothing short of pathetic. Go look at Shell Creek and Yost Park and how erosion has been ignored and facilities just closed rather than fixed, even when volunteer help could have been used. Also know that a house has just been approved to be built right across the street from the city owned Wade James Theater that will intrude into the wetland downstream from Yost. After that one gets built others will follow.