City disregards Juanita Creek | Letter

Well, here they go again.

The City of Kirkland must eliminate all natural areas, pave them, or turn them into roads. Now we have Edith Moulton Park, that has been sitting in the natural state intended by its donor, Edith Moulton, since the 1960’s, when she donated it to King County.

“Every child should have access to a little bit of wilderness”, she said.

How many other undisturbed natural areas are available to the public in King County? Not many. Way too peaceful.

The City has decided to put in another dog “off-leash” area with fencing. Of course, any day of the week, you can see dogs off leash already throughout the park. No city enforcement of leash laws. Better to carve out a “right” for dogs to run free.

And the city had to add in a pea patch for all the aspiring mini-farmers out there. No mention of how it will be secured or managed. Maybe we can have a guard house and a full-time night manager to protect the crops. Who gets space? What chemicals and fertilizers will be used? Who stops theft or vandalism?

Besides losing the peace and nature, we’ll also damage the salmon. Some nice paved trails all along Juanita Creek to leak chemicals and runoff. Some fecal bacteria from dogs. Some chemicals from the pea patch. All uphill of the creek. I guess the salmon should all just move along.

See the Juanita Creek report (last updated in 2008)from the City Public Works site http://www.kirklandwa.gov/Assets/Public+Works/Public+Works+PDFs/Surface+Water/Juanita+Creek+Watershed+Report+Card.pdf.

Note the high levels of chemicals and fecal bacteria—City response—so what?

Note they haven’t updated their Juanita Creek report in 9 years. Note King County quit reading water quality in much of Juanita Creek and instead has been entering zero values, but averaging forward to make it look like levels are improving.

Bye Bye Salmon. The city doesn’t care anymore.

Roger Stone,

Kirkland