Midland MATTERS!

Did you know that Midland used to have 6 lake/ponds with year-round water as late as 1950?
Did you know that Midland's wetlands systems provide water to 2 salmon bearing creeks?
Did you know that Midland is the confluence of 3 Watershed Basins?
Did you know that Midland is divided into 2 Water Drainage Districts?

Pierce County Council has instructed Planning and Land Services to begin re-mapping the
wetlands in Midland. How will this affect our property owners? Click here for answers...

QUICK-JUMP TO AREAS OF CRITICAL CONCERN
	1200 block of 85th Ave E	74th St & Portland Ave
	1800 block of 88th St E	79th St & Golden Givens
	1900 block of 86th St E	90th St & Golden Givens
	1900 block of 90th St E	91st St at McKinley Ave
	10500 block of Golden Givens	112th St & Portland Ave

First attempt to return groundwater to wetland fails….

At 90^th & Golden Givens, there used to be a water tower connected to 3 wells dug side by side. The tower is gone, the wells remain in reserve for Tacoma Water. These wells were

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90th & Golden Givens

part of the water supply for the Southeast Mutual Water co. There is a tremendous amount of groundwater under the whole area along Golden Givens on the east side, from 76^th south, which originally drained to Clover Creek. Think of how much water was drawn from those wells every day for all those years by all of us. After Tacoma Water removed the tower and capped the wells, the excess water over what is stored in the wells found it’s way to the roadside ditch, then into a storm gutter on Golden Givens, into a drain pipe which runs west on 90^th almost to McKinley where it then turns south behind the house you see here, then into the main storm line under McKinley at 91^st.

After we discovered this pipe and started asking questions, the County finally admitted this water was being diverted away, should be going to Clover Creek, and agreed to plug the pipe and return the water to the wetland. They maintained that it was a small amount of water and wouldn’t make much difference. Boy, were they wrong! The first attempt to plug this pipe failed, flooding this home at 91^st & McKinley during the January rain. There was so much water in that

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91st & McKinley

pipe that it pushed the steel plate up & the water gushed out for hours. The County removed that plug, stating that it would not work to plug it there and are considering trying the plug farther back toward 9^th Ave. This volume of water, while admittedly higher because of that rain storm, is nevertheless a good indicator of how much Clover Creek water has been drained away every day of the year for many years from all over Midland. Many of us still remember when this wetland area flooded like this every year. The County says “look at all the flooding” we say “look at all that water, draining out to the bay every day.”

Remember that this is just one pipe. There are many, many pipes in Midland like this one, draining all the wetlands, groundwater, ponds, springs, and ultimately the creek, watershed and aquifer. We had over 2700 wild salmon return to Clover Creek this year. But the creek is running dry, while we are piping all this water away from it. This summer will be disastrous for the creek, which could have survived nicely with all the water we are piping away from here. There is much work to be done. It’s almost funny to hear the pleas for us to conserve water when so much more is wasted in these pipes every day than we could even try to waste by leaving a tap running while we brush our teeth. If you think this is wrong, as we do, call the County & tell them so. While you’re at it, call our Council Representative, Barbara Gelman & tell her too.

Buren Acres - 1900 block of 86^th St Back to Top

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1900 block of 86th St E - BEFORE

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1900 block of 86th St E - AFTER

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This was the waterway before destruction as it tries to flow up 19th from 108^th (and further south before 112^th & 512 & all the east/west roads were built across the north flowing water. The picture was taken in 1999, standing at the edge of the road approx where the sidewalk is in front of the house below. This wetland was a part of a water system that extended all the way through to 85^th & beyond, originally to the Puyallup River before the Puyallup itself was altered and straightened. It seems common practice has been to disprove these wetlands rather than prove them. resulting in the loss of most of the highest categories and has allowed all the excuses for filling and destroying the precious few that are left.

The natural waters flowed through this area slightly to the east of the above waterway before the County decided to alter it for convenience more than 60 years ago by diverting it into the Roosevelt ditch. Parts of the original waterway still exist. By any criteria, the ditch still should have been treated as a natural waterway of Washington since it now carried natural waters.

Instead it was considered a nuisance without a name & downplayed for any importance without need for buffers or protection. The wetlands were conveniently disproved and destroyed to build these houses, though they were clearly obvious. We have now lost most of this water system. The vegetation in the first picture (top) extended right the way through this property and through the property across the road too (now destroyed by development too). If that property had been delineated to prove wetlands rather than disprove them, the County would have found the wetlands under the prior disturbed and graded property and should have ordered them restored.

The brown wooden fence between the houses is where the stream above used to flow, now forced underground in a pipe. The culvert replaces the natural vegetation and stream bed. This water mixes with the roadside ditch water and is all dirty. The County did not require the new ditch to have vegetation like the original ditch did. Basically, the vegetated old ditch which maintained clean water was destroyed and replaced with a new crushed rock ditch. Stupid isn’t it? The detention pond at the end of the development failed and failed, the liner slid into the water & all the clay turned the water solid gray. The County, working to accommodate the builder at all costs, advised the builder to bulldoze out a great deep abyss in the center of the pond, so now the natural flow from the above wetland & groundwater flow into the creek is interrupted, detained, retained, dirty and of little natural use, serving only to accommodate the builder. The water flow has been so compromised by such thorough detention that the flow rate is barely negligible now. The natural waterway has suffered great harm due to the loss of it’s water supply.

Ah, 74th & Portland Back to Top

Before brush clearing

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5/23/03

After brush clearing

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The classic example of what happens when you remove a wetland’s vegetation. Here we see [photo 5/23/03] the edge of the wetland before it was illegally cleared. Note how the black wetland soil runs right to the road edge. Note also that for years the wetland trees held the water at that edge, keeping it from flooding over the road. Now see what happens when you remove the trees & vegetation. We tried to tell the County for years and years that this was a wetland. They kept telling us we were wrong. It will take many years for this vegetation to grow back to where it contains the water, which is nature’s design. (that is, if the County will protect it and allow it to grow back. This is of the waterway system that originally flowed from south of 112^th all the way to the Puyallup River near the mouth of the bay. After hwy 512 was built, the water flow was cut off somewhat, but numerous springs and underground streams kept it supplied.

Why all of these streams are underground now is anybody’s guess, but we suspect that all the east west roads and building on the wetlands forced the water underground when we paved over them. Note the water is flowing out from behind the car [photo 1/18/05], from the cleared area above, and flooding onto the road and south properties.

To date, we have determined that this is probably the Clay system, a waterway identified by the Puyallup Tribe from their historic records. This waterway system has been damaged badly in several areas, including where 82 St Ct was built right in the middle of the waterway under County claims that there is no waterway at all. The wetlands that run on either side of 91^st, 90^th, 85^th, and 80^th are all part of this waterway, which has suffered the most damage because of the denial of the County of it’s existence. None of the roads were culverted, so the water finds it’s way under the pavement to attempt to continue it’s original flow. This is what happens. A great deal of this water is also piped away.

>> Clear/Clark's Watershed Basin at the confluence
     with the Puyallup River Watershed Basin
>> District 19
>> Water flows from south to north to the
     Puyallup River

1/17/05

1/18/05

1800 block of 88th St E (across from Dawson Park) Back to Top

Clear/Clark's Watershed Basin
District 19
Water flowed from south to north to the Puyallup River, now is diverted to Swan Creek at 2200 block of 85th St E

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