Tag Archives: utilities

Density, powerlines, and development: Here is why it still goes dark on North Capitol Hill

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(Image: CHS)

Day-long power outages from June-uary winds and rain that hit over 7,000 Seattle City Light customers in northern Capitol Hill earlier this month didn’t have enough of an impact for the city to consider installing underground power lines. The location of Capitol Hill power outages follows a pattern: in areas where multifamily housing development is less prevalent, power lines sit above ground and are left vulnerable to high winds and storms.

“The recent, sustained high wind event caused many outages throughout our service area including Capitol Hill,” Jenn Strang, media relations manager of SCL, told CHS.

Power outages are frequently caused by fallen trees, wind and ice. Strang said some instances are easier to fix than others, like the outage at 15th St and E Olive St.

“In the case of Monday’s outage at 15th Street East and East Olive, multiple wire spans and crossarms needed to be replaced and repaired which required different crews to complete the tasks,” Strang said.

Installing power lines underground to lessen the risk of outages in the area isn’t an option without larger scale housing development.

For one, it’s expensive — and the city wants developers to pay for it.

Nicholas Rich, client executive at IMEG—a national engineering and design consulting company— said many owners of newly built apartments want City Light to bury overhead power lines underground.

“If you put those underground you really improve the reliability in that respect locally,” Rich told CHS. “Usually a new developer won’t want to do that because City Light is perfectly happy keeping those overhead lines just the way they are.” Continue reading →

Hollingsworth’s parks and utilities committee gets down to business considering Cedar River trees

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An example of a healthy Cedar River forest from Wednesday’s briefing (Image: City of Seattle)

While most of the rest of the newly formed Seattle City Council committees have gotten off to slow starts this year with overviews and introductory presentations from the city departments they represent, the committee chaired by first-term District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth was all business Wednesday afternoon hearing the introduction of legislation that would clear the way for the city to thin the thickly grown forest around its highly protected Cedar River Watershed for “ecological thinning” and a limited timber sale.

The first bit of business pertained to issues far from Capitol Hill and the Central District in the city-owned forestland along the Cedar River in eastern King County.

With support from the Muckleshoot Tribe, the legislation that started with Hollingsworth’s committee Wednesday would authorize Seattle Public Utilities to sell timber as surplus property from the thinning effort as it works to clear 600 out of the watershed’s 90,638 acres over five years. Proceeds would go into the city’s Water Fund. Continue reading →

You really shouldn’t throw away a battery in Seattle

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Seattle Public Utilities

You shouldn’t throw batteries in the trash anyhow but now it is against the rules in Seattle. City officials are scrambling to get the word out after Seattle Public Utilities quietly put new rules into place banning batteries from the garbage to start 2024 to address an increase in dangerous fires, environmental, and cost concerns.

The new rules ban trash disposal of common household batteries, more powerful batteries for vehicles and tools, and embedded batteries found in electronics, toys, computers, monitors, and e-bikes,

It’s an honor system. Continue reading →

After summer’s ‘unprecedented stretch of dry weather,’ Seattle residents urged to conserve 49 million gallons of water per day

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With the Puget Sound about to be walloped by its first bout of true Pacific Northwest-level fall and winter rains, Seattle Public Utilities is putting out a call for help that shows just how close the region is cutting it in terms of water supply after an extremely dry summer.

Citing “an unprecedented stretch of dry weather” this summer, SPU is asking residents to cut down on things like showers, watering lawns and flowers, and more as drought conditions have taxed the city’s water supply. SPU says the goal is to drop the average water consumption for the region to 100 million gallons per day and “keep it at or below that level until we get enough rain to refill the mountain reservoirs sufficiently.”

The region is currently averaging use of about 149 million gallons per day, according to SPU. Continue reading →

SDOT adding 57,000-gallon stormwater tanks as part of Madison RapidRide G bus line construction

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(Image: SDOT)

One major reason construction of the Madison RapidRide G bus line will take years not months is the heavy load of utility and infrastructure work the city has piled on to the project. The latest extra digging accompanying the transit project is taking place on Capitol Hill’s 10th Ave E where a stretch of the street will be closed for two months for the installation of a massive stormwater tank system to capture runoff.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says a short stretch of 10th between Union and Madison was closed for two months starting Monday for the project where crews will dig a trench in the street and install piping to build the stormwater tank in sections. Once sections of the tank are installed, the trench will be filled with dirt and the next segment’s work will begin. Water testing of the tank will follow and then the street must be repaved. Work crews will first remove the remaining street surface and then grade the entire area and repave it, SDOT says.

The new storage tanks are designed to be able to hold up to nearly 57,000 gallons of water when needed. Continue reading →

City Council approves recycling, garbage, and composting rate hikes over Sawant opposition

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(Image: City of Seattle)

It’s been a while since District 3 representative Kshama Sawant stood completely alone on full Seattle City Council votes. But even the representatives more prone to smaller government leanings like District 4’s Alex Pedersen of Northeast Seattle didn’t join the Central District socialist in her most recent nay votes at the council.

Tuesday, Sawant’s three votes against the bills were only opposition to a set of legislation establishing Seattle Public Utilities solid waste rates for 2023-2025 for things like recycling, garbage, and composting services.

“I do appreciate all the work SPU staff has done to make those rate hikes smaller than they were previously projected to be because every penny counts,” Sawant said. “However, at a time when inflation is out of control and workers’ paychecks are stretched farther and farther, and with a recession predicted, they will have a rough landing for ordinary people.” Continue reading →

Seattle City Council approves water and waste rate hikes — 20% by 2026

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Like most things in the city, Seattle’s utility rates for water, sewage, garbage, and recycling are also set to rise. The Seattle City Council approved a plan Monday that will increase rates by around 20% for residents and businesses.

Seattle Public Utilities says the increases are needed because of inflation and labor costs, construction and maintenance, and rising utility taxes. Continue reading →

Anticipating wave of 5G demand, Seattle setting rules for how its pricey ‘Small Wireless Facility’ installations should look

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It’s the season for City of Seattle feedback gathering. Next up, the Seattle Department of Transportation wants your input on how a small but important element of your telecom environment fits onto the streets of Capitol Hill and across the city.

Feedback on the city’s Small Wireless Facility (SWF) design standards are hoped help to reduce “visual impacts to the streets and sidewalks that form the public right-of-way”  — especially as 5G technology rolls out across the city:

Most often installed on poles in the public right-of-way, SWF are antennas and related equipment that are smaller than traditional cell towers and extend wireless network coverage. With more people using smart phones and relying on mobile connectivity, wireless providers will need to increase the capacity of their networks and will want to install more SWF throughout Seattle.

The city’s new proposed design standards would apply to devices installed on both metal and wood poles in Seattle’s right-of-way including telephone poles and streetlights. Continue reading →

About those Sunday afternoon booms you heard on Capitol Hill…

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(Image: @primaseadiva via Flickr)

The booms you heard Sunday afternoon across Capitol Hill and the Central District? That was the central city’s surprisingly robust power grid doing what it needed to do to keep service intact even when faced with the greatest electricity infrastructure scourge known — the mylar balloon.

Seattle City Light said there were no prolonged outages but that many callers reported “mylar balloons in the lines.”

CHS had one report of balloons in the wires on 15th Ave E.

Residents reported loud booms from electrical utility gear throughout the early afternoon. The utility also made a District 3 endorsement — of sorts. City Light says D3 candidate Logan Bowers’s Twitter explanation of what was causing the booms was, ahem, “bang on” — Continue reading →

Work to strengthen Capitol Hill’s grid continues with E Union underground project

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Shoes on the wires. Seattle, WA. August 2016.

east_union_overall_project_map-1024x759Slowly but surely, Seattle City Light is moving Capitol Hill’s electrical wires underground to create a safer, more stable power system for the neighborhood.

A five-month project to install underground electrical vaults and equipment will begin later this month along E Union on the backside of Pike/Pine, the city announced this week. Continue reading →