Lake Washington Used To Be A Polluted Mess Like The Trinity River But It Got Cleaned Up

Yesterday I found myself Wondering Why So Many Fort Worth Locals Think Tubing Polluted Water With Gators Is Fun, during which I found myself reading the Wikipedia article about Lake Washington.

The Wikipedia article about Lake Washington had one paragraph that detailed in greater detail than I knew or remembered of how Lake Washington was restored to being a lake full of clean, clear water, safe for swimming and home to a lot of tasty fish.

Below is the paragraph I am talking about, under a heading of Water Purity...

Water Purity
Around 1900, Seattle began discharging sewage into Lake Washington. During the 1940s and 1950s, eleven sewage treatment plants were sending state-of-the-art treated water into the lake at a rate of 20 million gallons per day. At the same time, phosphate-based detergents came into wide-use. The lake responded to the massive input of nutrients by developing unpleasant blooms of noxious blue-green algae. The water lost its clarity, the desirable fish populations declined, and masses of dead algae accumulated on the shores of the lake. Citizen concern led to the creation of a system that diverted the treatment-plant effluents into nearby Puget Sound, where tidal flushing would mix them with open-ocean water. The diversion was complete by 1968, and the lake responded quickly. The algal blooms diminished, the water regained its clarity, and by 1975, recovery was complete. Careful studies by a group of limnologists from the University of Washington showed that phosphate was the culprit. Since then, Lake Washington has undergone major improvements, drastically improving the ecology and water quality, making the water twice as clear as it was in 1950.

Now, this is what I am thinking.

Here in Fort Worth, where there is no body of water twice as clear as it was in 1950, we have this entity called the Tarrant Regional Water District and its foster child known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision Boondoggle, holding floating events in the Trinity River at a location they call Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion.

Spokesmen for America's Biggest Boondoggle, via their Panther Island Pavilion Facebook page, have propaganda-ized that getting wet in the Trinity River is no different than getting wet in your drinking water, what with your drinking water coming from the same source, that being Lake Eagle Mountain and Benbrook Lake. The PIP propaganda neglects to mention, however, that the water that comes out of your tap has been treated, unlike the water the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place in.

If the Panther Island Pavilion Propagandists think the Rockin' the River water is as clean as drinking water, how about a publicity photo of all of them drinking a glass of water fresh out of the river. With chief PIP Propagandist, J.D. Granger, taking the first gulp.

With America's Biggest Boondoggle stalled in slow motion from its original goal of altering the course of the Trinity River, creating some sort of waterfront feature that will somehow spur economic development, but which has morphed into multiple variations of beer parties, some on dry land, some in water, is it not time to do some serious priority assessment?

Such as, why not make the #1 priority cleaning up the Trinity River, like Lake Washington was cleaned up? Figure out what causes the spike in e.coli when the temperature rises and fix it.

Again, why is that not the priority?

Recently I read a PIP Apologist opine something along the line that for years now critics have been whining that America's Biggest Boondoggle should not be encouraging people to get in that polluted river, when the fact of the matter is that over the years of The Boondoggle boondoggling thousands of people have gotten wet in that water without growing a third nipple or having their hair fall out.

So, I guess as long as no one comes out of the Trinity with an extra nipple or bald, all is good and it is totally aesthetically pleasing to get into that murky brown water where you can not see what is swimming with you, be it a turtle, a snake, a gator or a plume of cow manure.....

A Walk Along The Trinity River With Lunch At The Woodshed Smokehouse

Occupying Woodshed Smokehouse For Lunch

Today I walked the Trinity Trail and met Madame X for lunch with Tim Love at the Woodshed Smokehouse.

The walk along the Trinity River was interesting.

But, first lunch was had at the Woodshed.

Skinny Madame X had the Skinny Chicken sandwich, while I had the Woodshed Burger.

I recently had a Double Double Burger at In-N-Out. I prefer the Double Double to the Woodshed Burger, though the Smoked Cheddar is a nice touch.

There were not as many people at the Woodshed for lunch today as there were the first time I was at the Woodshed, that being the Occupy Woodshed protest where we had libations and chips. Some overhead fans have been added to add some air circulation to the un air-conditioned Woodshed.

Woodshed Designer Outhouse & Shower

The entrepreneur behind the brilliant Woodshed concept, J.D. Granger, insisted there be no air-conditioning because he felt cool air would detract from the gritty atmosphere he was hoping to create.

I'm guessing the cool outhouse that is part of the Woodshed complex, along with the outdoor shower, is also part of the gritty atmosphere design of J.D. Granger.

I did not know what the parking situation was at the Woodshed and I knew it was easy to park at Trinity Park, with Trinity Park being a fairly short distance to the Woodshed.

Do Not Go Over Your Limit Of 5 Rainbow Trout

Why is most of Trinity Park's parking blocked? And the Trinity Trail blocked, heading east? This made parking a bit more difficult than I had anticipated.

The URBAN FISHING AREA sign you see in the picture has perplexed me previously. In most areas you are advised not to eat any fish you catch in the Trinity River.

However, this sign informs you that a Texas Fishing License and Trout Stamp are required to catch your limit of 5 Rainbow Trout per day.

A person standing near me as I read the sign muttered, "There ain't no trout in that damn river."

The Fort Worth Forbidden Zone

I don't know about that, but I sure saw a lot of turtles and what looked to be a big snake, plus multiple instances of big fish jumping out of the water making big splashes.

Just a short distance upriver from the URBAN FISHING AREA, maybe 500 feet, there is a very dire warning sign that made me wonder how it was that Rainbow Fish were available for catching a few feet downriver.

FORBIDDEN ZONE - NO TRESPASSING - CITY OF FORT WORTH - RAW WATER INTAKE

That really does sound dire. This is the only place on the planet where I recollect having found myself in a FORBIDDEN ZONE. Does this mean raw water is being sucked out of the dirty river at this location? Or is raw water flowing in to the river at this location? I prefer my FORBIDDEN ZONES to be very clear about the reason for the forbidding.

Fort Worth Bikers Crossing Trinity River

There are several dam bridges crossing across the Trinity River, some of which are part of the Trinity Trail. I don't quite understand the thinking behind the dam bridge crossing you see in the picture.

The 3 guys had to carry their mountain bikes across the dam bridge because the path across is a line of big rocks, with the river waterfalling between the rocks.

A short distance downriver there has been at least one instance of someone falling into the river at a similar crossing and drowning.

It seems sort of irresponsible, to me, to have a paved trail lead to a dam bridge that is topped with a line of big rocks that you have to traverse carrying your bike overhead.

Up Before The Sun Again On Day 7 Of September Wondering Why I Can Not Catch A Salmon In The Trinity River

On this 7th morning of September I am again up before the sun, looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world at swimming pool currently being chilled by a temperature of only 63.

It is being so much easier to get a good night's sleep with no A/C running and no ceiling fan spinning overheard.

I thought of my nephew Joey, up in Washington, in the town of Clear Lake, near the Skagit River in the Skagit Valley, this morning, whilst reading the Skagit Valley Herald online.

Joey is a fishing maniac. Every year Joey catches a lot of salmon, many of which get turned into smoked salmon.

There was a period of time when the salmon runs in the rivers of Washington were in danger, as in few salmon were returning to spawn.

This is no longer the case.

Currently it is the return of the pink salmon that is happening. Pink salmon are also known as humpies. What is happening on the rivers right now is known as humpy mania, as a lot of fishermen are catching a lot of fish.

An estimated 6 million pink salmon are heading up the Puget Sound rivers. Of those, about 1.2 million are swimming up the Skagit, where Joey will catch quite a few.

I don't know if Joey is mailing his favorite uncle any smoked salmon this year.

None of the Puget Sound rivers have signs warning an angler that consuming the fish caught may not be safe.

The same can not be said of Texas where there are rivers and lakes with signs warning anglers that consuming fish caught may not be safe.

 But, it is totally safe to go inner tubing in those unsafe to fish waters.

J.D. Granger's Magic Trees Saving Arlington From The Trinity River While Not Worrying About Haltom City Getting Saved

Yesterday I made a video about J.D. Granger's Magic Trees.

I should have edited the video much shorter, leaving out the question that led to J.D. revealing the surprising news that he is busy planting 80,000 trees in Fort Worth's Gateway Park for the express purpose of protecting Arlington, which is downstream from Fort Worth, from flooding accelerated by J.D.'s Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I brightened the video and made J.D. louder so you can somewhat better understand his garbled Texas accent.

Yesterday I also made a short video of a clip sent to me of the "Up a Creek" documentary movie (now viewable online). The short clip made mention of the fact that Miss Layla Caraway observed 30 foot trees being torn out of the ground by the flooding Haltom City Creek that was trying to swallow her home.

Can none of the 80,000 Trinity River Vision Magic Anti-Flood Trees be given to long-suffering Haltom City?

People have died in Haltom City floods, including one little girl. Haltom City is only a few miles north of Gateway Park. Haltom City is a border town of Fort Worth.

Can't Fort Worth look into its troubled soul long enough to spare some Magic Trees to stop the out of control Haltom City creeks?

I know that taking down the badly outdated Trinity River levees, which have stopped flooding for over 50 years, is very important. And that replacing them with a giant flood control ditch, at great cost, is a very forward thinking thing to think.

And spending a lot of money to build a little pond that will serve as a swimming lake and a drinking water source, in addition to water storage, according to J.D. Granger, is a really smart thing to be investing in.

But can't a few dollars be spared to give Haltom City, and the other Mid-Cities some of the Magic Anti-Flood Trees that J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision have developed in their nationally acclaimed, internationally recognized, visionary vision?

Below you can more clearly hear J.D. talk about his Magic Trees....

Water Baby Has A Gator Encounter In The Inner Tubing Area Of The Trinity River In Fort Worth

One of my undercover agents, who, for blogging purposes, will be referred to as Water Baby, was taking a stroll along the Trinity River last night, before sunset. As Water Baby walked, she and her walking companion were startled to see a large reptile moving stealthily down the Trinity River.

Moving stealthily in the same location in Trinity Park that J.D. Granger and his TRV crew hold their Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Due to the bad light provided by the setting sun, Water Baby's pictures aren't all that great. But you sure can clearly see something is moving in the river and leaving a wake behind it.

Below is another of Water Baby's pictures and below that I'll insert Water Baby's Full Gator in the Trinity Report.

Yesterday while I was walking on the trinity trail I spotted something peculiar swimming in the river.  I noticed it right away because the wake behind it was huge.  It was swimming in the middle of the river at a very slow pace and coming from under the university st. bridge toward the mini train station (by the zoo).  My first instinct told me it was a gator because of the way it was moving, like it was scoping the area for prey.  I  took a few pics and continued to watch just to see where it was going, it eventually stopped along the edge of the river bank over by the train station.  By this time it was out of sight so I continued my walk, looping around to the other side of the river and headed back home in the direction of the zoo (and the mysterious creature).  When I was nearing the train station area I walked over to the river bank area to look around and check to see if that thing was still in the water and I saw it in the shadows!!!  At this time I was very close and it still looked like a gator, so I was a little nervous.  I took a few more pics.  Because the sun was going down, my flash was on and I could tell it was bothering this thing.  It seemed to be looking at me from the side, then it swam around in a half circle to face me, as if it were sizing me up.  then it became too dark to take any more pics on my cell phone cam, so I just sat there staring at it.  It stood there looking at me for a while and then slowly started swimming back toward University upstream. There were two ducks swimming downstream so I thought maybe it was interested in the ducks, but as it approached them, they started flapping their wings and took off flying.  I watched it until it disappeared into the shadows of the river banks under the bridge.  My companion and I really thought it was a gator, let me know what you think.  One thing is for sure--JD Granger's TRV tubers better watch out, because if this was really a gator, their happy hour production could turn into Jaws, gator-style. 

No Rain Has Fallen But The Trinity River Is Rising

I showed you this same view of the Trinity River on Saturday. At that point in time the sandbar was way bigger. Today, crossing the Beach Street Bridge over the Trinity I saw that the river has risen.

How can that be?

We have had no rain. Though some is predicted to fall tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow.

The river has risen so much it is about to re-float some inner tubes that have been dry docked. Maybe J.D. Granger is reading this in time to send out a rescue team to get the inner tubes before they go back into float mode.

I turned around from the inner tubes, and slowly disappearing sandbar, to look east to the Trinity Dam/Bridge, to see a white pickup truck sitting on the middle of the dam, above where the whirlpool was whirling strong before the water went low. I figured due to the rising water, the whirlpool must be back.

A white pickup truck. My one longtime reader knows I have a really bad history with white pickup trucks. So, I decided to bike on down to the truck and see if I could find myself in some sort of interesting situation.

Oh. It is a Tarrant Regional Water District white pickup. This seemed a bit less nefarious than an Express Energy Services white pickup.

A guy with some power tools was doing I do not know what. He was on the phone with someone, sounding a bit concerned. I thought if I stopped by the truck, with the worker guy right there, that I might get to ask what he was doing. But, he never got off the phone. I stood there taking pictures for a couple minutes and then continued on my way.

Even though the Trinity River was quite a bit higher than it was on Saturday, the whirlpool had not returned. I do not think any water was making it through the dam. Thus the rising water on the one side of the dam and shrinking water on the other side. This must be what the Tarrant Regional Water District guy was working on.

On Saturday I saw that DANGER sign on the next dam upriver, saying that "maintenance was in progress." No similar sign was on the Trinity dam outside Gateway Park.

Interesting to me that we have a river here that you, apparently, can turn on and off. Except when it is in flood mode.

The only other river I have lived up close to was the Skagit River in Washington. The Skagit River really does not have the off and on feature that the Trinity River has.

Except.

There is a really rugged, wild section of the Skagit beneath Gorge Dam. If you are having fun playing in that section and you hear sirens, you need to make it quickly to high ground, due to water being released. If you have seen the movie, Parallax View, you have seen how scary the Gorge Dam can be. The Trinity River seems fairly benign in comparison.

Except for those J.D. Granger inner tube floats.

The Tires Of The Shrunken Trinity River And Its Warnings & Dangers

What's up with all the tires in the Trinity River? Well, more accurately stated, left stranded by the Trinity River. I had not noticed this interesting one the previous time I biked out of Gateway Park to take pictures of the extremely low Trinity River. We are looking west towards downtown Fort Worth in the background, with the sand bar in the midground, which was one of my reasons to bike the Trinity Trail today, which you see in the picture below.

As you can see, this sandbar almost crosses the Trinity River bed. It appears some vehicle has driven down onto this sandbar. That seems foolish to me. In the full-size, full resolution photo I saw 3 or 4 more tires. They are located in the lower middle part of the picture. They are the little black specs. 

Above the sandbar you can see what appears to be a yellow school bus. It is not a yellow school bus. It is a yellow law enforcement bus that hauled a chain gang to the Trinity River levee to pick up litter.

My goal on this particular bike ride was to take the picture that you see above of the sandbar with the Trinity River narrowed to a trickle. And to take a picture of the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Trinity River Water Sucking Operation a few miles further down the trail, that I'd taken pictures of a few weeks ago. 

I thought it'd look interesting if that particular water sucking operation's pipes were out of the water, with the Trinity River dried up in that location. With me then pondering, as to how much of the Trinity's low level is due to the millions of gallons being drained by the gas drillers.

But. That particular water sucking operation, just past the train bridge that the Trinity Railway Express uses to travel back and forth from Fort Worth to Dallas, is gone.

All cleaned up.

That is the TRE, in the picture, heading to downtown Fort Worth. It startled me today, tooting loudly, as I was taking pictures of some interesting signage that I am about to show you. I stopped taking the sign pictures and turned around and managed to get one of the fast moving train before it moved out of camera range.

 I am standing on the Trinity Trails side spur that crosses over the Trinity River on one of the dam/bridges. This is slightly south of the 4th Street Bridge across the Trinity. The top sign says...

DANGER
 MAINTENANCE IN PROGRESS
NO
WADING SWIMMING BOATING

Without that sign I'm sure a lot of people would be tempted to go wading, swimming or boating. Or inner tubing. The second sign is also interesting....

WARNING
BY ORDER OF THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH;
THE POSSESSION OF FISH  FROM THIS RIVER IS
STRICTLY PROHIBITED
DUE TO CONTAMINATION

The next picture shows an additional DANGER to the danger caused by maintenance in progress.

Is that not an amazing collection of litter and brown water swirling around the intake that goes under the dam?  This particular section of the Trinity River, with the dire warning and danger signs, is just a short distance down river from the section of the Trinity River that J.D. Granger has deemed suitable for his Trinity River Vision Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

I wonder what maintenance is in progress? And why this maintenance presents a danger? And what is being added to the Trinity River, after it leaves J.D. Granger's safe clean river zone, that has the Trinity so badly contaminated by the time it reaches the 4th Street Bridge that the dire warning and danger signs are needed?

I saw a couple other interesting things today. I'll blog about them later. 

Mother Nature's Schizophrenic Tandy Hills Behavior & A Dried Up Trinity River Ruining Inner Tubing

With only 16 days until November arrives, Mother Nature, in Fort Worth's Tandy Hills, is putting on a somewhat schizophrenic show. Like Mother Nature can not decide if it is spring or fall, as witnessed by the spring-like display of wildflower color in the picture above. Blooming at the same time as the fall-like foliage in the picture below.

I do not have any clue what this clash of seasons portends for winter. A record breaking 100 degree plus day in the middle of January? A Christmas Eve tornado? A blizzard with 5 foot snow drifts?

I must say, hiking on the Tandy Hills today was as near perfect as it can get. Perfect temperature, perfect wind blowing.

An interesting item is sitting next to Tandy Shrine II. I did not take a picture, because I knew my photo skills would not be able to manage a decent picture of it. Someone found a long, maybe 20 feet long, sort of rusted, tapered, thick wire type piece of junk. I suspected it was laying nest to the Shrine because the person who drug it there found that he/she could not stick it in the pipe without knocking the pipe over.

But, in the oft chance the the pipe dragger had not attempted wire insertion, I tried it. I quickly found that what I suspected, was true. The pipe could not support the wire. That and the effort left my hands a rusty mess.

Since it is Saturday, of course I was on the Tandy Hills. And equally of course, afterwards, I went to Town Talk. On the way to Town Talk I saw the Trinity River is the lowest I've seen it. On the west side of the Beach Street Bridge the river is down to just a couple feet wide, with a mud bar almost reaching from the south side of the river to the north. I should have stopped and taken a picture. I do not think I could muster the energy, later today, to head out to Gateway Park and pedal my bike out to the dried up inner tubing mecca.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a closer look at the disappearing river. I wonder if the Trinity is drying up due to the Tarrant Regional Water District over selling water sucking permits to the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers? Those boys suck millions of gallons of water from that long-suffering river.

What happens when you happen to float on your inner tube near one of the giant water sucking straws? I guess this is not currently an issue, with there currently not being enough water to float anything but random pieces of litter.

Where are the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers doing their water sucking now that they've sucked the Trinity dry?

Off To See The Trinity (Horned Frog) River Turn Purple

I am heading to downtown Fort Worth's west side, to Trinity Park, in a bit to see if Mayor Mike Moncrief actually goes ahead with his plan to dye the Trinity River purple.

And rename it Horned Frog River.

All because a Fort Worth football team, called the TCU Horned Frog's, has won some games. And their school color is purple.

Too bad TCU's color wasn't brown instead of purple. Wouldn't have needed any dye if that were the case.

This has boondoggle written all over it. How much dye would have to be inserted into the river to color a section of it purple?

I'm hoping to get some good pictures. And maybe video. But I'm assuming this expedition will end up being a big dud.

On a totally unrelated, though wet note, it was 40 degrees when I tried to go swimming at 7:30 this morning. I lasted about 2 minutes in the icy water. Now, over 2 hours later I am still sort of shivering. Methinks my pooling may be over for awhile unless we get some warm days. I kept pooling last year til sometime in December.

Will this Global Warming thing I keep hearing about ever make it to Texas?