On Monday, December 16, the Council approved legislation authorizing Seattle Public Utilities to revise its contracts with solid waste collection companies to allow implementing the “One Less Truck” program in 2015. The legislation sets the stage for a Council decision early next year on whether to proceed with every other week garbage collection to continue […]

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has completed its evaluation of the One Less Truck Pilot Project, which evaluates reducing the number of trucks in our neighborhoods by moving to every-other-week garbage pickup. One Less Truck would save ratepayers up to $5-6 million per year, reduce traffic and encourage recycling and composting. SPU has learned that implementing […]

On Monday, July 22, the Council unanimously adopted a resolution establishing a City policy supporting green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and adopting a goal of managing 700 million gallons of stormwater annually by 2025 – about 1000 gallons for every Seattle resident. The resolution will be implemented by including green stormwater infrastructure in city projects and […]

On Monday, December 10, the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance taking the next step towards zero waste in the construction/demolition arena.  The ordinance prohibits recyclable material from being disposed of in construction and demolition garbage containers, railhead intermodal containers, and the City’s transfer stations.  It also creates a construction waste recycling facility certification program […]

Seattle Public Utilities has developed an updated water plan covering 2013-2018, with some analysis and projection for future years as far out as 2060.  It’s a good news plan, demonstrating that Seattle’s commitment to water conservation has been extraordinarily successful, and projecting continued success in the future. The bottom line is that total average demand […]

Seattle and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) have completed negotiations on a historic consent decree that opens the door for a more thoughtful and effective approach to promoting clean water in Seattle and Puget Sound.  The Council is now reviewing this decree, and will vote on whether to endorse it in the near future. […]

The Seattle City Council is authorizing a pilot program to test the idea of moving to garbage collection every other week.  The pilot program, which will be implemented for 800 customers in four neighborhoods from July through December, will examine what rate structure best rewards people for minimizing their garbage, while avoiding unwanted negative impacts. […]

After twenty years of research, planning, litigation, and finally construction, the new sockeye hatchery on the Cedar River finally opened this month.  Wait, we are celebrating a salmon hatchery?  Aren’t hatcheries one of the villains of the salmon story? Yes, hatcheries have been one of the ‘4H’ identified factors of salmon decline, along with habitat […]

In 2010 Seattle sent 335,600 tons of solid waste to the Columbia Ridge Landfill in eastern Oregon.  That’s what we need to target for reduction.  The good news is that we continue to make great progress, and a recent study of residential waste demonstrates how well we are doing, and where we have opportunities to […]

On Monday, February 28, the Council unanimously approved legislation that I sponsored to set standards for landscaping and screening for solid waste transfer stations and utility service buildings. This issue came to my attention when I was Chair of the Committee overseeing Seattle Public Utilities.  As we moved forward with a rebuild of the North […]