City Manager Report – September 6th, 2024

Celebrate and Protect Puget Sound

The Puget Sound is vital to our community, and the City wants to encourage residents to celebrate and protect it!

Daily, pollutants from our neighborhoods flow through storm drains to nearby creeks, streams, and lakes, which flow into Puget Sound. We rely on clean water for our well-being, as do salmon, orcas, and other wildlife living in our shared habitat. What we do here has an impact on our local waterways and, eventually, on Puget Sound.

You can help protect this resource by focusing on vehicle-related contaminants. With three small changes to how we drive and take care of our cars, we can keep pollution out of our creeks, lakes, rivers, and Puget Sound. Here are three simple suggestions that can help:

1. Car Washing – When washing your car, the rinse water contains harmful pollutants like oil, grease, heavy metals, and soaps. If you wash your car on the street or in your driveway, the pollutants run on the road and into the storm drain and then flow untreated into the water system. Instead, consider taking your car to a commercial car wash or wash your car in a grassy area. Commercial car washes are required to treat their dirty water, and the grass and soil will soak up the wash water, preventing it from running down the street into a storm drain.
2. Don’t Drip and Drive – Even a small oil leak can significantly impact your car and our creeks, lakes, rivers, and Puget Sound. Take these steps to maintain the health of your vehicle and the environment:
   1. Check your vehicle for leaks regularly and get them fixed promptly.
   2. Always recycle used motor oil properly by bringing it to your local auto shop. Call or visit 1-800-RECYCLE to find a location near you.
   3. If you find a leak or are doing engine work, use ground cloths or drip pans. Clean up spills immediately.
3. Tire Maintenance – Pollution from car tires that flows into our waterways is highly poisonous to Coho salmon. Research shows that the newly discovered toxic chemical associated with tires (6PPD-quinone) is why large numbers of salmon are dying in Northwest creeks before they can spawn. Please keep your tires properly inflated so they will wear down more slowly. Check your tire pressure once per month. Check your tire alignment and rotate tires according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Proper alignment and regular rotation prevent uneven wear on your tires, reducing the amount of tire particles that wear off as you drive.

Thank you for being part of the solution!

Green Jobs, Green Futures Summit Sept. 26

Join King County on September 26th, 2024, from 12:00 to 4:00 pm for the annual Green Jobs, Green Futures Summit at the Fremont Foundry in Seattle! King County is bringing you an interactive, one-day event geared towards creating community connections and highlighting businesses in the local green economy contributing to a more sustainable future.

They are re-envisioning the traditional job fair model to embrace experiential learning by bringing together tangible real-world demonstrations of the work taking place in the sectors vital to a climate-informed future. This event will center on organizations from four sectors of the green economy: Construction, Manufacturing, Transportation, and Professional Services/Technology. Attendees can engage with organizations and potential employers through creative, innovative, and immersive demo stations that spark curiosity and excitement.

Click here to register. Whether you’re a job seeker, employer, or would just like to learn more about the green economy, this event is for you.

If you have any questions about these or other topics, please get in touch with me at aarrington@normandyparkwa.gov. Have a great week!

“With three small changes to how we drive and take care of our cars, we can keep pollution out of our creeks, lakes, rivers, and Puget Sound. Here are three simple suggestions that can help…”