White Center Now: The blog about White Center

ORIGINAL 6:48 AM REPORT: From Seattle City Light:

Seattle City Light Crews are responding to a power outage in Burien, SeaTac, and Riverton-Boulevard Park affecting 2,892 customers. The cause is not known at this time. The estimated time for restoration is 10 a.m. The outage started at 6 a.m.

You can see the boundaries here.

7:37 AM UPDATE: Some of the affected customers are back online, says SCL:

Seattle City Light Crews have restored power to 1,331 customers from an original outage affecting 2,892 customers in Burien, SeaTac, and Riverton-Boulevard Park. The outage was caused by a vehicle running into a pole. The estimated time for restoration is 10 a.m. The outage started at 6 a.m.

8:57 AM UPDATE: From City Light:

Power has been restored power to all but 43 customers from a 6 a.m. outage affecting 2,892 customers in Burien, SeaTac, and Riverton-Boulevard Park. The outage was caused by a tree landing on wires in the 15500 block of Second Avenue South. An earlier press release incorrectly said that it was the result of a car/pole accident.

Thanks to Athena at Meander’s for flagging us on this – it wasn’t on the Seattle City Light outage map till a short time ago: There’s a power outage in downtown White Center. 65 customers (one customer = one business or home) affected, says SCL. Might not be back on till 4 pm. Looks like it’s affecting the north side of Roxbury around 16th, 17th too.

Next week – on Tuesday, October 30th – Seattle City Light invites you to a meeting about a big project set to start along Ambaum. Here’s the info:

Seattle City Light will be upgrading the underground electrical system along Ambaum Boulevard SW starting in early November. As underground cables age, their protective insulation deteriorates. When a crack forms, and water or dirt reach the wires, it can lead to an unplanned power outage. Seattle City Light is working with a company called Novinium to help avoid such outages by using a silicone injection process to upgrade the cables. The silicone fills the cracks and extends the life of the cable and improves reliability for your electrical service.

Crews will be entering electrical vaults in the neighborhood and testing the cable to determine if the injection process can work. If the cable condition is satisfactory, crews will inject the silicone into the lines. If cables can’t be injected, they will be replaced at a later time.

Residents can expect:

-Planned power outages so crews can work safely
-Up to (but no more than) six planned outages and NOT on consecutive days
-Notification by door hanger the Thursday of the week before the outage
-Outages lasting about eight hours

Work will begin in early November and last approximately 27 weeks. Work hours are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday. There will be no work on Thanksgiving Day, the week of the Christmas holiday, or New Year’s Day.

There will be some traffic and parking disruptions in the immediate work area, but it will be carefully signed. Work is done at a vault and trucks move on after about an hour. Flaggers will be used where needed on residential streets. Crews will be careful to try to maintain access to driveways.

A community meeting is planned for Tuesday, October 30 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Mount View Elementary School, 10811 12th Avenue SW. Residents are encouraged to attend and ask any questions they may have.

Just in from King County:

King County Executive Dow Constantine and King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert today urged the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) to conduct a thorough investigation into missed garbage, yard waste and recycling pickups in the unincorporated areas during a recent strike by haulers who work for Waste Management of Washington, Inc.

“I’m glad that Waste Management and its drivers were able to reach agreement, but we received many complaints from residents about missed pickups,” said Executive Constantine. “I urge the WUTC to conduct a thorough investigation and to use its regulatory authority to ensure that residents and businesses whose collections were disrupted are made whole.”

In separate letters to the WUTC – the governmental entity with legal authority over solid waste collection in unincorporated areas – Executive Constantine and Councilmember Lambert noted that Waste Management is entrusted with the vital public service of garbage, yard waste and recycling collection, and that thousands of residents, including those in unincorporated areas, were left without garbage and recycling pickup.

“It is important for customers in the unincorporated area to understand that King County doesn’t control waste collection services, because the State of Washington has the regulatory authority,” said Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who represents northeast King County areas served by Waste Management.

“We need to work very closely with the state Utilities and Transportation Commission to make sure our unincorporated area citizens have the same protections as those in cities, and that the same accountability measures can be applied to waste haulers. It also is important for those affected by service disruptions to get better information, and they need it right away,” added Lambert.

Drivers represented by Teamsters Local 117 who collect recyclables and food and yard waste, and who are employed by Waste Management, went on strike for eight days beginning July 25. Drivers represented by Teamsters Local 174 who collect garbage honored the picket lines and garbage also went uncollected.

Customers of Waste Management will be able to comment to state regulators at a public meeting Thursday on the impacts of the company’s recent labor dispute on solid waste and recycling collection services.

The WUTC will hear a presentation from the company regarding its strike response strategy at 4 p.m. and will take comments from customers at 5 p.m. on Aug. 9, in the Woodinville City Council Chambers, 17301 133rd Avenue NE, in Woodinville.

A text alerted us to an unexpected geyser in the Zippy’s Giant Burgers parking lot along 14th SW this afternoon … the folks we talked to there said some sort of power problem was involved. But for a while, it was just the thing for a warm summer afternoon … a temporary spray park!

Local utilities say there’s help for people who can’t pay their utility bills – but few people manage to get that help, because they don’t know it exists. That’s why Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light are putting on a special event this weekend in West Seattle – find out about it here (and that link also will help you find out if you qualify for assistance).

(Photo by Deanie Schwarz)
Seattle City Light has published another update today about its ongoing systemwide streetlight inspections in the wake of “contact voltage” that killed a Queen Anne dog and spooked one in West Seattle’s High Point neighborhood – and this time, a White Center problem was found, according to City Light’s online update. It’s at 1721 SW Roxbury Street [map] – photo above (right outside the Salvadorean Bakery building) and was found with 111 volts. The utility says a faulty ballast assembly was replaced; its contractors have finished inspecting more than a third of the streetlights and associated facilities in the system

Followup on our report that Seattle City Light planned to inspect Greenbridge streetlights and poles after a “contact voltage” discovery in West Seattle’s similarly built High Point neighborhood: Tonight, SCL says the inspections didn’t turn up anything in Greenbridge. Here’s the full story from partner site West Seattle Blog.

White Center Now contributor Deanie Schwarz sent word this afternoon that the hoped-for power has arrived in the Delridge Triangle mini-park area, in plenty of time for Wednesday’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony (7 pm): “City Light crews just completed installation of GFCI outlet and a breaker.” She also shared the photo. This is supposed to also help provide light to the flag that flies over the veterans’ memorial that’s in the same spot, as White Center Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes had said while making the tree announcement.

Seattle City Light superintendent Jorge Carrasco has just revealed that White Center’s Greenbridge will have all its metal streetlight poles checked within the next two weeks, in the aftermath of a problem detected with a pole in High Point, following publicity about the death of a dog that stepped onto an electrified plate near a light on Queen Anne. The High Point incident involved a resident calling about a problem – no humans or animals were injured – and while it was repaired, and 170 similar poles nearby were checked without any other problems detected, City Light says that they are going to inspect poles in 3 “similar developments” over the next 2 weeks – Greenbridge is one of them. Here’s our full story on partner site West Seattle Blog.

Still got power? Thousands of people don’t, in Shorewood, parts of White Center, and Burien – Seattle City Light has more than 17,000 homes and businesses without power around its system, and the map shows one of the biggest outages, more than 4,200 customers, right in this area. You can check its newly upgraded “system tracker” here. As for the weather – the region’s under a Wind Advisory until at least 1 am, and there have been gusts in the 40s in some areas.

If you get trash pickup from Waste Management, you can stop worrying about what’ll happen if the Teamsters’ strike drags on – it’s over as of late this afternoon, after just a day and a half. The drivers offered to return to work, and the company accepted the offer. They’re due to resume contract talks on Monday. Here’s the latest from our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times. If you’re among those whose pickups were missed, put out up to double the usual amount next week, and you will not be charged extra, according to Seattle Public Utilities.

Waste Management, with a service area including White Center, has just gone on strike. Here’s a report from our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times; more to come.

While Teamsters Local 174 isn’t saying its drivers definitely WILL walk off the job if they don’t have a contract deal with Waste Management - which serves White Center as well as parts of Seattle and other local communities – by tomorrow night, the company is taking no chances: Our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times have just published an update, saying WM is hiring replacement drivers. Talks continue tomorrow.

ORIGINAL 12:53 AM REPORT: Seattle City Light confirms 1,900 “customers” (homes and businesses) are without power in parts of Highland Park and White Center, as of about half an hour ago. (Lights flickered in parts of West Seattle around the same time the power went out to the south.) No word yet on the cause or how soon it’ll be restored. 4:27 AM UPDATE: City Light says everyone’s back on, and says a “cable failure” was to blame.

Thanks to Laura for the tip. Seattle City Light’s hotline lists two outages, one in the general White Center area and one in Burien – the boundaries listed on hotlines are always a bit broad so we hesitate to include them here, but the Burien outage is blamed on a fire, the cause of the one in White Center listed as unknown. 4,000 homes/businesses affected in the White Center-vicinity outage, 3,000 in Burien. More to come.

4:27 PM UPDATE: Here’s the full news release from City Light’s media-relations team:

A fire associated with a power outage in Burien and unincorporated King County has increased the number of customers affected by the outage to about 7,100 homes and businesses.

The fire is burning in a wooded utility right of way south of S 96th Street and west of Des Moines Memorial Drive. Power lines were reported on the ground in the area and at least one utility pole was burning.

Seattle City Light deenergized the power lines to allow firefighters to put out the blaze. City Light crews were dispatched to restore service once the fire was extinguished.

The cause of the outage was not immediately known. City Light expects to restore service to most of the affected customers by 5:30 p.m. by routing power around the damaged area. An estimate for full restoration of service will not be available until crews are able to inspect the damaged equipment.

The general boundaries of the outage are SW Barton Street on the North, SW 167th Street on the South, Glendale Way S on the East and Puget Sound on the West.

Just got this word from Linda Holmes at McLendon Hardware:

McLendon Hardware’s White Center location will be hosting a free water conservation clinic on Saturday August 1st from 10:00-12:00. Learn how to easily and inexpensively conserve water and save over $150 per year on your water bill. Scheduled to attend the event will be Seattle Public Utilities, Saving Water Partnership, plumbing vendors, and others who will be helping McLendon’s spread the word on water conservation.

2:48 PM UPDATE: City Light’s Mike Eagan says the outage is over. Checking on a cause.

ORIGINAL 12:57 PM REPORT: Here’s the news release we just received (12:55 pm):

Power went out for approximately 3,671 City Light customers
in Burien, SeaTac and unincorporated King County at 12:36 p.m. today.

The cause of the outage is currently unknown, but City Light crews are
heading to the area to investigate. An estimated time of restoration is
unknown at this time.

The area affected is bordered on the north by So. 96th St., on the
south by S.W. 175th St, between 24th Ave. S.W. and 33rd Ave S.W.

Stephen Lamphear wanted to share this information:

f you are a customer of Seattle City Light — you do not have to be senior or disabled to get reduced rates.

Low income customers can get a 50% rate reduction. That means what it says — LOW INCOME. Stop struggling to pay utility bills — get help. This is not temporary or one-time help to pay the bill. This is long term rate reduction. Eat better, pay less for electricity.

Discounted Rates for Seniors, Disabled and Low-Income Customers
Qualifying customers can save 50% on electric, water, sewer and garbage bills. Customers living in federally-funded public housing and Section 8 housing are not eligible.

* Seniors and persons with disabilities – If you are a senior citizen or a person with disabilities and your income is at or below 70% of the state median level, call the Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens at (206) 684-0268.

Income Guidelines.

* Low-Income – Customers with household income at or below 70% of state’s median income may call the Seattle Human Services Department at (206) 684-0268 to qualify and enroll.

This message brought to you by Stephen Lamphear, former Burien City Councilmember!