Seattle Public Utilities’ Shape Our Water project is offering tours for exploring how water shapes people’s lives as it flows through homes and streets to creeks, lakes and the ocean. The tours are self-guided and can be done in person or virtually. The Madison Valley Stormwater Improvement Project Tour takes residents through reforested park, past artwork and to scenic overlooks designed to double as a wastewater system that can store up to 1.7 million gallons of stormwater.
The tour visits Madison Valley and Washington Park at the entrance to the Arboretum.
People who live in around the park helped Seattle Public Utilities decide what features to include, like a footbridge that runs over a wet patch.
A Western Red Cedar Facility has intercepted about 250 gallons of rainwater this year, preventing 82 gallons of stormwater runoff from entering the combined sewer system.
That scenic overlook into Washington Park’s play fields and the rain garden around it? It doubles as backup for a 1.3 million-gallon storm water storage tank.
The tour is a part of the Shape Our Water effort to ask the community what types of drainage and wastewater improvements residents would like to come to their neighborhood over the next 50 years. Learn more at www.shapeourwater.org.