Blog – Page 2 – Edmonds Environmental Council

Edmonds Hearing Examiner decides on Perrinville Creek saga

The examiner revoked the city’s Determination of Non-Significance, forcing Edmonds to address infrastructure issues on the creek

By by Eliza Aronson
Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Perrinville creek diversion structures and blockage

Link to Everett Herald article

EDMONDS — The city of Edmonds has work to do on Perrinville Creek.

On Friday, City Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts decided city staff must address safety issues about a corroded pipe that connects the last few hundred feet of stream to Puget Sound, and consequently restore fish passage along the lower portion of the creek.

Council April 1 set to review priorities for Comprehensive Plan amendments

Posted: March 30, 2025

Link to My Edmonds News Article

The Edmonds City Council is scheduled at its Tuesday, April 1 business meeting to review its priorities for 2025 Comprehensive Plan amendments and vote on which ones to pursue for further study.

Letter to the editor: A request to continue Edmonds Marsh work

By William Alexander
March 30, 2025
My Edmonds News

Editor’s note: This letter to Mayor Mike Rosen is being republished here at the author’s request. We did ask the city last week if they had a response but so far have not received one.

Dear Mayor Rosen:

Scientists discover ‘potential breakthrough’ in protecting salmon from urban killer

March 28, 2025 at 6:00 am

By Amanda Zhou
Seattle Times staff reporter

For decades, toxic tire dust has choked coho salmon before they can spawn in their natal streams. Now, King County scientists say they have made a “potential breakthrough” in how to save them.

Western Washington University student researchers split a sample of treated stormwater into smaller amounts for analysis. (Courtesy of Curtis Hinman)

Link to Seattle Time article

Walk & Talk tours begin — starting with Westgate neighborhood center

by Nick Ng
Posted: March 27, 2025

Link to My Edmonds News Article

About 15 attendees, including Edmonds City Councilmember Vivian Olson (center), started the Walk & Talk guided tour at the PCC parking lot on March 27. (Photos by Nick Ng)

Speeding, unsafe sidewalks and lack of crosswalks along 100th Avenue West were some of the concerns Edmonds residents voiced during the first day of the Edmonds Walk & Talk tour Thursday morning at the Westgate neighborhood center.

Bolstering Shell Creek’s salmon population

By Joe Scordino
For the Beacon

Posted 3/20/25

The Edmonds Stream Team released 5,000 baby chum salmon into lower Shell Creek on Monday. The Suquamish Tribe donated the salmon fry to help the community effort to bolster salmon populations in local creeks that flow directly to Puget Sound.

This item is available in full to Beacon subscribers.

**Sandra Centala helps carry aerated buckets loaded with chum salmon fry donated by Suquamish Tribe for release in Shell Creek. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Stream Team)**

Examiner to decide route of Perrinville Creek

by Eliza Aronson
Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Closing arguments were submitted last week in a hearing that could determine if the creek will be passable for salmon in the next three years.

Press release: Bolstering Shell Creek’s Salmon Population

By Joe Scordino, Project Leader
Edmonds Stream Team
March 12, 2025

Photos by Clint Wright, Joe Scordino, and John Brock

Reported in My Edmonds News

Sandra Centala helping carry aerated buckets loaded with Chum salmon fry donated by Suquamish Tribe for release in Shell creek

The Edmonds Stream Team released 5,000 “baby” chum salmon into lower Shell Creek on Monday. These chum salmon “fry” were donated by the Suquamish Tribe to help the community effort to bolster salmon populations in local creeks that flow directly to Puget Sound.

Council hears plan for engaging community in centers, hubs and middle housing concepts

by Teresa Wippel
Posted: March 12, 2025

Photo collage from City of Edmonds Neighborhood Centers and Hubs web page.

Link to My Edmonds News Article

Two phrases — “neighborhood centers and hubs” and “middle housing” — are a major focus for the City of Edmonds this year as staff works to update the city’s development code. The Edmonds City Council Tuesday night learned more about those efforts, which follow the council’s adoption of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update Dec. 17.

Edmonds Planning Board to continue discussion of neighborhood centers and hubs Feb. 26

Posted: February 24, 2025

Link to My Edmonds News Article

The Edmonds Planning Board during its Wednesday, Feb. 26 meeting is scheduled to continue its discussion of the city’s planned code updates for its neighborhood centers and hubs.

The State of Edmonds Waters: Part 2 — Edmonds streams

Posted: February 2, 2025
By Bill Derry

Edmonds resident Bill Derry is the president of the Pilchuck Audubon Society and a member of the Edmonds Marsh Estuary Advocates. He previously served six years on the board of directors for People for Puget Sound.

Part 2 of a 5-part series. You can read part 1 here.

In the first article on Edmonds’ waters, I discussed what happens when old growth forests are replaced by development and rain becomes contaminated stormwater runoff. This article looks specifically at Edmonds’ streams and how our choices are changing them.

Edmonds has four streams that could support salmon, in addition to several smaller streams (see map below). The four salmon streams are Willow, Shellabarger, Shell and Perrinville Creeks, all of which drain toward Puget Sound.

Press Release: Settlement Reached with City of Edmonds on EEC’s Appeal

January 31, 2025

The Edmonds Environmental Council (EEC) and the City of Edmonds have reached agreement on suspending the EEC’s Appeal of City regulations pending results of a scientific study on stormwater infiltration and its risks of PFAS and other toxins polluting the drinking water aquifer. Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, the City will use the study results to make recommendations to the Edmonds City Council on the Deer Creek Aquifer Critical Area Regulations. The full text of the Settlement Agreement is available on the EEC website at https://edmondsenvironmentalcouncil.org

Settlement Agreement: Deer Creek Springs CARA

January 28, 2025

The following is the signed settlement agreement between the City of Edmonds and the Edmonds Environmental Council. This agreement is the result of several mediation meetings.

2025-01-28 CARA settlement Download

Stream Team report: Record number of salmon in Shell Creek

Posted Sunday, January 12, 2025 6:12 pm

By Joe Scordino
Edmonds Stream Team

Maija Jinneman observing a female chum salmon protecting her eggs laid in the gravel. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Meadowdale High students – Maija Jinneman, Aspen Spivey, Maya LaBelle, Emma Roberts. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Meadowdale Beach Park visitors responded to this sign with photos and videos. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Edge of this bridge was modified to provide a salmon passage channel after the underside of the bridge was blocked by sediment, (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Avery Bergan helps salmon passage in her backyard by clearing debris that washed into creek during rainstorm. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
High scchool students collecting data on stream conditions and salmon .occurrence. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Maya LaBelle examining a chum salmon that died before it could lay its eggs in the creek. This “pre-spawn mortality’ may have been caused by toxic tire dust (6PPDq) that enters the creek through storm drains on roads.

There’s good news coming from the Edmonds Stream Team after completion of its annual adult salmon surveys last month in Edmonds’ Shell Creek and Lund’s Gulch Creek in Meadowdale Beach Park.

2024 surveys show record number of salmon in Shell Creek

— Story and photos by Joe Scordino
Project leader, Edmonds Stream Team
January 1, 2025

High school students collecting data on stream conditions and salmon occurrence.

The Edmonds Stream Team completed its annual adult salmon surveys in Edmonds’ Shell Creek and Lunds Gulch Creek (located in Meadowdale Beach Park) in December. The Stream Team documented the highest number of chum salmon spawners in November 2024 since surveys began in Shell Creek in 2017.