By Steve Shay

Mayor Greg Nickels took a 45-minute tour of the West Seattle reservoir project under construction Wednesday morning Oct. 21. The tour was led by Stephanie Murphy, senior civil engineer and project manager for the site, and Bill Duyungan, senior civil engineering specialist and construction manager, both with Seattle Public Utilities.

The existing reservoir was once the 68-million gallon “pond” surrounded by barbwire fencing perched above Westcrest Park and its off-leash dog park.

Now waterless in West Seattle, the new, downsized 30 million gallon reservoir will have a cement roof cover. On it will sit a 21.5-acre grass park for public recreational use. The construction phase of the $36 million project is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, the entire project to be finished by summer.

According to Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Parks and Recreation, the cement cover will guard against contamination from birds and the potential of someone deliberately contaminating the water.

This is the latest of six such reservoirs to be covered for a park atop the mayor initiated, including the Lincoln Reservoir with its Cal Anderson Park, on Capitol Hill, the Myrtle and Beacon (Jefferson) Reservoirs, with Maple Leaf Reservoir now in the works, and a proposed Roosevelt Reservoir. Nickels said that the Bitter Lake Reservoir was already built when he became mayor in 2002 and recalled being unimpressed with it structurally.

“I was very concerned about Bitter Lake (Reservoir)," he said. "It was very clear it was not optimal for the security for water. It was butt ugly. I was thinking that these other reservoirs need to be better. I am thinking of this as a very long-term investment. The reservoirs are built to last 100 years.”

An underground seismic activator is in place equipped with a shut-off valve that can be controlled off-site in case of an earthquake.

And the size reduction?

“We looked very carefully at capacity of the old reservoir and reduced it significantly. We were over-built.”

“We have the delivery capacity (at the West Seattle Reservoir) but not the local storage capacity,” said Murphy. “The other reservoirs in the system will take care of that.

“We had a perimeter fence around the entire site,” she added. “It will stay up along the dog park to keep it contained on the east side. Two-thirds of the south end will be open for public access, as well as the north and west sides.”

Murphy pointed out that trees don’t work on these cement lids because of issues with their roots. However, Seattle Parks and Recreation may place some trees in raised planters.

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