Gov. Chris Gregorie, seen here at an event earlier this year, approved $1.54 million in funding for the Ballard Green Streets project Nov. 24.
Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Department of Ecology approved clean water projects in Ballard, as well as Spokane and Olympia, worth a total of $5.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding Nov. 24.
Project proponents estimate the projects will support approximately 75 construction jobs.
The low-impact development projects will provide enhanced stormwater treatment. Such projects mimic nature to capture or slow stormwater runoff so it can naturally infiltrate back into the ground.
Seattle Public Utilities’ Ballard Green Streets project gets $1.54 million of the $5.6 million.
The utility will install 10 blocks of swales to naturally detain and infiltrate stormwater.
This Green Streets project will control runoff from 2.6 acres of hard surfaces, reducing sewer/storm overflows. The swales will help reduce stormwater pollution in the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which serves as a key migration corridor for threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead, coho salmon and regionally significant sockeye salmon.
The swales will also free up capacity in the combined sewer/storm system, reducing pollution overflows. Half of the $1.54 million is a low-interest, 20-year loan and half is forgivable principal loan, or money that does not need to be repaid.
The goal is to prevent polluted runoff from getting into downstream waters and drinking water. The projects also reduce flooding and sewer/stormwater overflows and improve water quality for threatened and endangered salmon.
“Getting more jobs is a great bonus," Gregoire said in a press release. "But, so is getting the clean water these projects provide for our state and for our salmon."
Polluted stormwater is the leading cause of urban water pollution. Water that goes into storm drains is not treated and is essentially the headwaters of our lakes, rivers, streams and Puget Sound.
On June 11, the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved the list of prioritized infrastructure projects slated to receive $65.4 million of financial assistance in the form of federal stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
