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News and Updates from Seattle City Light

Seattle City Light Shares Expertise with Forest Advocates from India, Bandladesh

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City Light got to share its expertise in managing natural resources across two nations with a group of international visitors in April.

Scott Powell, a Seattle City Light environmental affairs staff member, spoke April 25 to a visiting group from India and Bangladesh about the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC). The group included government officials and non-governmental organization representatives who are working to preserve the Sundarbans mangrove forest along the border of those two countries.

Scott Powell

During a presentation at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, Powell explained the history and development of the Skagit River watershed north of Ross Dam, an environmentally sensitive area shared by the United States and Canada.

He explained how the planned raising of Ross dam – and the flooding of the river and forest to the north – ran into opposition from British Columbiain 1952. Years of negotiation involving government and environmental interests in Canada and the United States resulted in a 1984 treaty that kept Ross Dam at its current height, provided City Light with electricity purchased from British Columbia, and set up an endowment fund and the SEEC to administer it.

Since then, the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission has worked with partner organizations to promote education, enhance recreation, and participate in land and ecosystem management of the Skagit watershed. The commission’s website is at http://skagiteec.org/

Powell said the presentation was directly relevant to the visitors from India and Bangladesh.

“We have a similar area of forest to care about as they do,” he said. “We have many things in common, and they were impressed with our capacity to protect these natural resources.”

The Sundarbans mangrove forest covers about 4,000 square miles of the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. It is an ecologically rich area, noted for its population of endangered Bengal tigers.

 

City Light Awarded $40,000 for Salmon Habitat Work

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Seattle City Light has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board to support salmon and steelhead habitat restoration along the lower Tolt River near Carnation, Washington.

“The Tolt River is important for salmon, steelhead and Seattle City Light,” Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. “We are committed to meeting the energy needs of our customers in an environmentally responsible manner and this grant adds to our continuing stewardship efforts to protect fish in the rivers we share.”

City Light is working on the project in partnership with the Stilly Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force. City Light is providing $27,600 in matching funds and the fisheries task force is contributing $6,150.

Restoration work will include the removal of invasive plant species and replanting of native trees on three acres of City Light-owned land that includes an important spawning area for Chinook and winter steelhead. Both fish are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Work is expected to begin in March.

The invasive plants are mostly Himalayan blackberries. They will be replanted with a mix of native trees and shrubs that provide salmon habitat, shade and insects that salmon eat.

Fisheries Enhancement Task Force members will conduct community outreach, including volunteer plantings, and events with local schools. Involving the community is designed to raise awareness of how neighbors along the river can make their landscaping more salmon-friendly.

Seattle City Light’s hydroelectric dam on the Tolt River can produce nearly 17 megawatts of electricity. That’s about 1 percent of the power City Light generates and enough to serve about 9,700 homes.

Seattle City Light is the ninth largest public electric utility in the United States.  It has the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents.  City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

Pole Barrier Helps to Protect the Environment

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Seattle City Light is helping to preserve the environment thanks to a new method for protecting light poles against critter damage and rot.

For the past year, pole crews have been applying a protective sheet of layered plastic to the buried end of some new light poles. The plastic barrier keeps moisture away from the wood, extending the pole’s service life and preventing the leaching of wood preservatives.

The use of plastic barriers is not new at City Light. One decade ago, Seattle City Light became the first utility to protect the buried end of light poles with a barrier system. But until a year ago, the barrier was applied to the poles at the factory. The barriers were often damaged during shipping, handling, and storage, and many were not waterproof by the time they reached the site.

“We were not getting our money’s worth,” said Steve Crume, SCL joint use manager and former pole engineer.

The new barrier looks like a sleeve and can be installed quickly in the field, just before the pole goes in the ground. It is much cheaper, costing about $40 per pole, compared with $140 for a barrier installed at the mill. The savings add up quickly – City Light installs about 1,200 poles in a year.

The new barriers are produced by Copper Care in Colorado. The barrier consists of heavy duty plastic films, with a layer of copper foil in the middle.

Though cost was important, the main reasons for using the barriers are to protect the environment and extend the life cycle of critical infrastructure. City Light uses copper napthenate to treat wood against rot and insect damage. Though this chemical is much safer than other treatments, it can still leach into the soil and affect nearby vegetation and marine life. The plastic barrier prevents this from happening. In field tests, vegetation will often grow right up to the base of the poles with barriers.

“The barrier lets you use less chemicals, and the pole lasts longer,” said Brad Combs, an SCL strategic advisor. Brad is a former pole engineer and a member of the American Wood Protection Association, which sets standards for pole treatment.