The Builder on the Lake

Posted By Dwight on October 9, 2011

It has been some time since we had water levels near normal. The last two seasons have been wet. Debris and growth at the outlet of the lake have restricted flow and remain a concern. This year King County did more than usual, but there are still large obstructions and sediments in the channel. If this is another wet winter, as is expected, then we can expect some very high waters. Batten down the hatches, this can happen very quickly in early fall, mid winter, or spring. I recently surveyed existing conditions at the lake outlet and I will report back after I analyze the data. The County is also working on a contract to have the outlet surveyed, but I don’t see any work being done yet.

Cutthroat Trout are coming in the lake now, and the summer water fowl are gone.

Enjoy the Fall!

Dwight

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Posted By Dwight on January 28, 2011

Are you a Henry—or a Henri?

Whenever I meet with new clients, we get to know each other by talking about an array of topics.  In the course of our conversations we explore taste and preferences, lifestyles and budgets.  And we discover who is a Henry, and who is a Henri.

The Henry is an engineer—someone who knows every piece that is going into a project before even starting to put it together.  Like the left-brained Henry Ford building a car.

The Henri, on the other hand, has an idea and selects colors and shapes that fit that vision.  Then, as the vision evolves, the colors and shapes evolve as well.  Like Henri Matisse creating a painting.

Building a home requires both.  It’s a whole brain exercise that entails precision and artistry, sequential logic and spontaneity, and that’s what makes it such an interesting process.

A recent study that compared the brains of expert and novice chess players showed that the experts processed information on both sides of their brains simultaneously.  Further, the study concluded that the ability to use both sides is an acquired skill, not an innate one.

Have you ever taken a test to see if you’re predominately left-brained or right-brained?  If you’re curious, there’s a quick questionnaire at web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm Even though the test is designed for students, it’s interesting because once you get the results, they outline ways to boost the performance of the less dominant side.

Or you can talk to a whole-brained custom home builder who can see the magnificent creation of your new house in total, while keeping an eye on every important detail.

Dwight

Find the man in the coffee beans

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people.

If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half of the brain is developed normally.

If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!  And yes, the man is really there!

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Posted By Dwight on November 16, 2010

I think electric cars are fascinating. I love the idea of using home grown fuel to run our cars. As I understand it there is extra capacity in our generation and electrical grid to charge a bunch of cars at night. This is an efficient use of our capacity to generate and of our electrical infrastructure, and it keeps jobs and money in the good ol’ US of A. PSE gets 40% of its’ power from hydro, so no carbon footprint there. Seattle City Electric gets even more hydro. Electric engines are very efficient, most of the power goes right to the wheels. I am not a scientist, but I hear that even if you used 100% coal fired generation it would be cleaner than gas. I am sure there will be more discussion of the whole carbon footprint from mine, oil well, or power plant, but I’ll tell you this much; I would rather sit in traffic behind a no emission electric car than a dieselcity bus! And think of this; around 30% of our nuclear power plant fuel comes from reprocessed nuclear warheads. My cousin goes to Russia as part of a verification program and tells me that 15,000 Russian nukes have been decommissioned, and a similar number of ours. Now that is a great way to generate carbon free power! Check out my video here and please vote for me, I could win a Nissan Leaf. They promise not to spam you. Thanks! Here is the link:

https://www.drivenissanleaf.com/Win/Vote.aspx?b=uz36tcrthsk2

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Posted By Dwight on September 23, 2010

At the end of August I was invited to a Small Business Roundtable with Governor Christine Gregoire.  We had a very productive discussion about the issues builders are facing in this economic environment–and how the state can help lower some of the barriers to doing business.

This was a wonderful opportunity for me to tell the Governor how much I appreciate her hands-on approach helping Washington’s builders.  Her work on both the state and federal levels to improve the availability of capital is very important to us; so too is the delay in implementation of a costly new energy code.  I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to hear what she had to say, and add my voice to other small business owners as we looked for ways to do things better.

(Click on the letter to be able to read it more easily.)

 Letter from Governor Gregoire

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Posted By Dwight on September 11, 2010

]Jane Hague & Kathy Lambert with Dwight at the weir; this stone “rip rap” is still visible in the mid channel but is under up to a foot of accumulated growth and silt in the high flow channels which drain the lake in the winter months.

On Thursday, September 9 King County Council-members Kathy Lambert and Jane Hague and county hydrologists and engineers joined representatives from Dave Reichert’s office and the City of Redmond–as well as a number of concerned Lake Sammamish residents–to take a closer look at the weir and the area that was recently mowed. This meeting was a result of an earlier King County Flood Control meeting, and was scheduled by Council-member Lambert’s office.

Before the meeting I went out to the weir to set up a few visual aids. I set my laser level–which rotates a full 360 degrees–on top of the weir at a height of three feet. Then I followed the laser beam and tied flags at that height on the vegetation surrounding the weir. This illustrated how high the water gets at Elevation 29: a significant flood stage design level. It also demonstrated how much of this area is filled by the “wall of willows”, logs, root balls, tall grass, accumulated silts, and other debris.

My earlier posts discussed the record high water levels we had this spring. This meeting was a great opportunity to show the County areas where flows are running into accumulations of debris which are blocking flow and were never intended in the original design. I recently noticed what appears to be up to a foot of accumulated silts and turf like growth in the high flow channel. Perhaps years of accumulated materials has raised the channel, which has a direct affect on lake levels. One observation is that the left channel is about one foot higher than the right. They should be the same.

We discussed next steps, I suggested removing the obstructions in the high-flow channel, logs and debris at this critical location are inappropriate. If willows must by maintained just below the weir, then limbing the tangle of low branches so that water can flow more freely would be a step in the right direction. A fish biologist was also present, he pointed out that this kind of habitat promotes bass who devour salmon as they migrate out to sea.

County hydrologists are studying the situation and want to be sure they fully understand it before they recommend a course of action. I am concerned that we are about out of time, fall is in the air and forecasters predict a wet and cold winter. I am glad that the County staff are taking this seriously, and want to thank Council members Hague and Lambert for coming out and marching through brush, water, and mud to see it for themselves!

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Posted By Dwight on September 2, 2010

The willows in the center of the photo are blocking the low-flow channel; to the left is the freshly mowed high-flow channel.

Shortly after our meeting with King County and the Army Corps of Engineers, I went over to the weir to see if the clearing had started–and it had.
The county took an important first step in resolving the water flow problem from Lake Sammamish into the Sammamish River. These photos show the results of the mowing operation that began late last week.
Still a concern are the willows and additional sediment accumulation that might restrict the higher flows come winter. On September 9 we’re meeting on-site to discuss future maintenance and what other steps need to be taken to ensure that the lake will continue to drain during higher flows.
As for right now, however, the water–and King County–are moving in the right direction!

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Posted By Dwight on August 20, 2010

It’s a rare and wonderful thing when concerned citizens, noted experts, and members of Federal, State and Local government sit down together and take concrete steps to fix a big problem.

Yesterday was one of those meetings.

Followers of this blog know that I’ve been actively involved in a variety of issues concerning Lake Sammamish. The high water levels that occurred earlier this summer have been a focus of my efforts.

The water was not flowing properly from the lake through the outlet at the Sammamish River, and it caused major problems for people who both live on this lake and use it for recreational purposes.

Yesterday a number of lake residents, leaders from local municipalities, officials from King County, the Army Corps of Engineers and representatives of state government sat down and had a meeting of the minds–and formulated the next steps to fix the water flow.

The work is only beginning, and we have a way to go, but we are on a positive path–thanks to all involved.

This is the way government is supposed to work!

Dwight

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Posted By Dwight on August 19, 2010

Approved: The City of Kirkland’s Shoreline Master Plan (SMP) has been approved by the State Department of Ecology. It includes regulations for a number of new uses as well as general performance standards, and you can see the highlights of the plan by clicking here.

Seeking Local Approval: The City of Bellevue’s proposed SMP is in the “Local Approval” phase, which needs to be completed prior to submitting the plan to the state in the fall. Take a look at the working draft here.

Upcoming Public Hearing: The City of Sammamish reports that the Department of Ecology will hold a public hearing—tentatively scheduled for October 7—on the city’s proposed SMP. You can get schedule updates and see the proposed plan here

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Posted By Dwight on July 22, 2010

Last year I put up six wood duck boxes, and early this spring I went out to check on them, clean them out and set up a few new boxes. Wood ducks are generally shy and they usually nest in tree cavities, so I feel lucky if I get a good view of one.

In two of the existing boxes I found fresh eggs, and within weeks there were two pair of wood ducks parading past our house daily.

I thought it was very late in the season, they should be brooding by now, maybe the nest boxes are all full? That weekend I made more boxes, and put one up right in front of my house and another at my neighbors. Within a week we had a duck in our box and about two weeks later our neighbors had “tenants” as well.

The drakes hung around for a while, and the hens were very discrete. We rarely saw her enter or leave the house. One day I noticed the drake sitting on the fence, and the hen sitting on the house, just hanging out. It was kind of unusual.

After a while I noticed there was a second hen, a hooded merganser, who flew up and stuck her head in the house. Our wood duck, on the roof, forced this interloper down into the drink. Clearly the merganser was interested in taking over the nest. They jockeyed for position, up on the roof, around the water, over on the fence, the ladies doing all the negotiating, a peck or hiss now and then, with the drake just staring straight ahead.

The turf war heats up

The male jumps off the fence

Finally the wood duck hen went in the house turned right around and sat half in and half out blocking the entrance. The hooded merganser was beat, and she flew away. Seconds later the wood duck hen took off and the drake followed.

I had not checked the nest for a while, so I decided to go have a look. As I set up my ladder I bumped the duck house and a third hen came flying out of the house! Our duck was sitting on her eggs the whole time. No wonder the other hen did not stay in the house for long, she probably got a nip in the butt from the duck on the eggs!

When I opened the house there were 24 eggs, fresh and clean as any you might see at the grocery store. A typical clutch is 10-15 eggs, so we had at least two ducks “dumping” in our nest. While not ideal conditions, our hen hatched out 9 ducklings from the batch.

My neighbor’s eggs hatched about a week later. They had a dozen in the nest, and I just happened to see six fluff balls right after they jumped, following their mama on a maiden voyage toward the lily pads.

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Posted By Dwight on July 22, 2010

It appears to me that work which was done at the Sammamish weir in 1998 may have had the unintended consequence of plugging the outlet to Lake Sammamish.
It is clear to me that the vegetation below the weir is now the critical factor for draining the lake, this vegetation is more restrictive than the weir itself in all but the lowest summer flow rates.

How could this have happened? Here is my take on it:

Prior to 1998 the weir was at elevation 25.5, mostly level with a wide and shallow outlet to the transition zone. The low flow channel just downstream of the weir was open and about 50′ wide (my estimate from the 1991 photo posted below).

Two improvements for fish passage in 1998 narrowed the low flow channel; a notch was created in the center of the weir, and a log sill with a 4′ wide notch was added just below a small fish resting pool below the weir. It seems that these two improvements narrowed the low flow channel and allowed the willows to grow together into the channel in the low flow summer months. Now it is hard to identify any low flow channel at all. The view from the weir downstream is a “wall of willows” where the low flow channel once was. This has become the limiting factor for the outflow of Lake Sammamish in low, high, and normal flow conditions. It is great to do things which are good for fish passage, but this work may have also caused lake levels to be substatially higher. That was not part of the plan.

I hope that this situation will be quickly rectified so that the lake flood levels can be better contoled next year.

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