Ron Sims
Don’t freak out, but I have found someone who approves of both Ron Sims and Brightwater. Mark Hertsgaard has an article in Mother Jones, “Why Seattle Will Stay Dry When Your City Floods,” and the hero of the piece is former King County Executive Ron Sims (currently HUD’s Deputy Secretary).
I also approve of Ron Sims, I should say. I was among the tens of people who voted Sims for senator (’94) and governor (’04) because almost uniquely among politicians, he consistently takes the long view and tries to prepare for it.
Sims was for a progressive state income tax before it was cool to suggest it as a response to our stunning projected deficits. (That’s also why he’s not governor, so in retrospect he may have wanted to keep certain ideas under his hat.)
Mark Hertsgaard
If Mark Hertsgaard is right, we’ll have ample time to thank Sims for his service as King County Executive in the future. Hertsgaard is the author of HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth–he’ll be in town on February 3, actually, for a talk at Town Hall. He’s been covering climate change for the past 20 years, from different angles, like its effects on the wine industry.
His book lets him take a broader view: “Hertsgaard has traveled far, from Western Europe to Bangladesh, to Africa and China, and he has found clear evidence that the effects of climate change are already pervasive everywhere,” says the San Francisco Chronicle review. Still, his book is tempered by an optimism born of faith in our adaptibility, and he singles out cutting edge responders: the Netherlands, yes, but also cities such as Chicago and Seattle.
In his Mother Jones article, Hertsgaard spotlights two projects that leave Seattle better situated than it was before. Post-Katrina, Ron Sims championed a $112-million rebuilding of Green River levees–essential because, besides being an industrial hub, the Green River valley is Seattle’s de facto pantry: hundreds of thousands of square feet of warehouse space are devoted to supplying grocery stores. (Even if you discount climate change, flood preparation around the Green River makes good sense.)
The other project is the much-maligned, overdue Brightwater sewage treatment system. At $1.8 billion, it was a huge investment, and difficulty with boring machines has led to significant delay: “If tunneling is completed by September, as now scheduled, the tunnel could begin carrying treated wastewater to Puget Sound in July 2012–a year and a half past the original target date,” reports the Seattle Times.
Sims believed water, even here in the Northwest, would be in shorter supply in the future, especially drinking water. Climate change models show shrinking snowpacks, and the region’s growth, in any event, will put more demands on watersheds. (Sims’ work to protect critical areas still has some King County residents willing to discuss “Second Amendment remedies” if they see him around their place.)
So not only was Brightwater designed to treat 36 million gallons of sewage per day, but it will return 21 million gallons, for use on golf courses, for industrial purposes, or for non-food irrigation. Even this was controversial, writes Hertsgaard:
Water agencies resisted Sims, accusing him of a power grab aimed at stealing their business. The former mayor of Seattle, Paul Schell, charged that Sims’ proposal would raise the price and lower the quality of water in the city. The state legislature eventually joined the fray, blocking the plan for three years. But in the end, Sims triumphed.
If climate change is all it’s cooked up to be, we may all owe Sims a tremendous amount. But even if we manage to scrub those pesky millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere tomorrow, Seattle still would have better protection from floods, and would waste far less water. In time, these are unlikely to stand as controversial moves.
