Madison Valley flood prevention may involve Miller area

This Seattle Times article summarizes the City's two main possible solutions to Madison Valley flooding. (also a PI article). Details from Greater Madison Valley CC:

Seattle Public Utilities will host a community meeting to discuss its solutions to the flooding of Madison Valley on Thursday, Oct. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Garfield Community Center. (SPU website has details, contact info.)

Here are the five alternatives, with storage capacity (mg = million gallons) and cost attached. Seattle Public Utilities favors options 3 and 5.

1) retain existing detention pond, use Washington Park Playfield as
storage. 1 mg at pond, 2.5 mg at playfield
for a total of 3.5 mg . $45 million

2) distribute storage throughout watershed create new detention sites at Miller Playfield, 650,000 g; 22nd and Madison, 260,000 g; and three sites on MLK, 500,000 g each; retain existing detention pond 1 mg for a total of 3.2 mg
$40 million. (She noted: The assumption for Miller Playfield is detention will be in a vault beneath the playfield. Ditto for 22nd and Madison, except detention
happens in a vault beneath the street.)

3) Divert northwest lobe of watershed to storage facility in Washington Park Arboretum, expand existing detention pond. 1.5 mg at playfield, 1.5 mg at 30th & John for a total of 3.0 mg. $18 - 28 million

4) Expand storage at 30th & John. 2.4 mg tank. $22 million

5) 200 block above ground storage Acquire 200 block homes on east side of 30th and west side of 31st plus two homes south of pond; demolish homes and create detention pond/natural drainage feature. Expand existing detention pond.
4.2 - 4.6 mg total $16.4 - 18.9 million

Please note that the driver for the selection of options 3 and 5 as preferred alternatives comes from the Mayor. His directive to SPU is threefold:

• find a solution
• fast, and at the lowest cost
• solution should provide highest performance now and into the future

Best,
Wallis Bolz
Engineering Sub-committee member and
President, Greater Madison Valley Community Council

I asked Parks if this might affect the plans for artificial turf at Miller. Kevin Stoops (acting Director of Parks Planning and Development Division) replied:

It is our understanding that SPU has two primary alternatives for correcting Madison Valley flooding-a storage and conveyance option that would involve use of Washington Park for a storage tank (and there are several options that combine the park site and the new detention site in different fashions) and a buy-out of the homes that are susceptible to the flooding at 30th and John.

We met with SPU staff to talk about the scenarios that involve Washington Park about a month ago. They did not directly speak to any alternative that involved Miller other than to say that they may look at other storage possibilities in the drainage area at some time in the future, and that Miller is at the far easterly tributary end of that drainage. As such, I do not see any affect on our future Miller PF field resurfacing project at this time. The Miller conversion to synthetic turf is funded for design in 2008, and earmarked for construction in 2009.