Seattle Is Getting Rain Wise

Among people who have never visited Seattle, there is a myth that it is constantly rainy.  While the winters are quite gloomy and wet, the summers are glorious and sunny.  The climate is temperate, rarely experiencing extremes in temperature, and the flora are lush.  One is never very far from water because of the Puget Sound and the many lakes.

Every day during my two-week stay in June, I took my grandson for two walks in his stroller around the Ballard section of northwest Seattle.  About eight blocks to the west of my son’s house is the Puget Sound (Elliot Bay).  And about six blocks south are the Ballard Locks which connect Salmon Bay of Lake Union to the Sound.

I immediately noticed that the houses in this section of the city do not have the manicured lawns of the suburbs.  Most of the tiny lots are taken up by craftsman, farm, or mid-century houses surrounded by rock gardens, vegetable gardens, or native plants.  Some lots look like jungles.  Eventually I came to a house with a “RainWise” sign and a box of brochures. 

I found out that if residents have a “RainWise” garden or a cistern for storing rain water, they can earn a deep discount on property taxes and other discounts from local businesses.  What?!  Why would you need a cistern in rainy Seattle?  During the winter, cisterns store water to reduce the amount of water entering the sewer system.  In the summer, the water can be used for watering when the weather is dry.  During my two-week stay in June, it was cloudy with a slight drizzle on only one day.

A rain garden is a shallow depression containing spongy soil and a variety of plants that thrive in NW sun, soil, and moisture conditions.  It collects water from the down spout and allows it to safely soak into the ground.  With every storm, rain falling on hard surfaces carries pollutants to the nearest drain or stream. In “big storms” this excess storm water can also cause sewers to overflow and pollute Puget Sound.  Homeowners can help slow and clear rain runoff from their properties.  The RainWise Program will pay up to 86% of the cost of bring properties up to its standards.

It is my observation that most Seattle residents work hard to be eco-friendly in many ways, and the RainWise Program is just one of them.