Boeing Creek is a
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, located in the city of
Shoreline
A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...
, just north of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
. It is about long and empties into
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
.
[ The creek is heavily modified along its course, and in many places has been diverted into ]culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
s. The watershed of Boeing Creek is about in size, with two main tributaries aside from the mainstem. The creek takes its name from William Boeing
William Edward Boeing (; October 1, 1881 – September 28, 1956) was an American aviation pioneer who founded the Pacific Airplane Company in 1916, which a year later was renamed to The Boeing Company, now the largest exporter in the United S ...
, who built a mansion along the creek in 1913. Despite the river modifications and stormwater pollution, the creek supports a variety of riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...
habitats, native animals and fishes.
Course
Boeing Creek's original headwaters have been placed into underground pipes. The creek's main stem emerges from storm drain culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
s at the intersection of Greenwood Ave and Carlyle Hall Road, which is considered its source, . The creek flows along the Shoreline Community College
Shoreline Community College is a public community college in Shoreline, Washington. It is located in a residential area east of Shoreview Park. The college contains over 80 acres and continuously serves 12,000 full- and part-time students. It o ...
campus, through Boeing Creek Park (the northern part of Shoreview Park). At the west end of the park the creek empties into Hidden Lake, . Boeing Creek exits Hidden Lake through a culvert under Innis Arden Way and flows west through a ravine and under BNSF's railroad tracks before emptying into Puget Sound.
There are two main tributary forks of Boeing Creek. The northern fork emerges from a culvert in Boeing Creek Park. Its water comes from drainage pipes beneath 6th Avenue. This fork joins the main stem in Boeing Creek Park. Another tributary fork rises in the neighborhoods of Shoreview Hills and The Highlands and flows north to join Boeing Creek below Hidden Lake.[
The lowermost portion of Boeing Creek flows between the neighborhoods of The Highlands and Innis Arden.] The Highlands is an exclusive gated community designed by the Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...
in 1909.[ online a]
Google Books
/ref> This portion of the creek is not accessible to the public.
During high flow events, additional water from pipes beneath 175th Street enters Boeing Creek Park, flowing into a stormwater detention basin
A detention basin or retarding basin is an excavated area installed on, or adjacent to, tributaries of rivers, streams, lakes or bays to protect against flooding and, in some cases, downstream erosion by storing water for a limited period of time ...
, then into the northern fork of Boeing Creek.
Discharge
King County
King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...
operated six stream gage
A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...
s on Boeing Creek during the 1990s. Gage 04j, called "Boeing Creek off Beach DR", was the farthest downstream at approximately river mile
A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...
0.4. It operated from August 7, 1991 to March 19, 1993. The maximum daily discharge measured was . The minimum daily discharge was 1.06. The mean discharge over the life of the gage was .
Watershed
According to Rich Ellison, Boeing Creek's watershed is large and includes of Puget Sound shoreline.[ The watershed is almost entirely within the city of Shoreline, reaching north nearly to the ]Snohomish County
Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 75th-most populous ...
line. Its southern extent reaches slightly into the city of Seattle.[ Boeing Creek's watershed borders, to the west, the watersheds of McAleer Creek, ]Thornton Creek
Thornton Creek is of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. Its watershed, the largest in Seattle, exhibits relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting;Brokaw it is home to f ...
, and Lyons Creek.[ King County maps Boeing Creek's watershed slightly differently. According to King County the watershed is completely contained within the City of Shoreline.
]
History
In 1913 William Boeing
William Edward Boeing (; October 1, 1881 – September 28, 1956) was an American aviation pioneer who founded the Pacific Airplane Company in 1916, which a year later was renamed to The Boeing Company, now the largest exporter in the United S ...
, founder of the Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
company, had a mansion built in The Highlands
Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau.
Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to:
Places Albania
* Dukagjin Highlands
Armenia
* Armenian Highlands
Australia
*Sou ...
neighborhood, along Boeing Creek. He lived by himself until 1921, when he married and started a family. In time the creek came to be named after Boeing. Earlier names included Hidden Creek and Hidden Lake Creek. The senior water right
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentious ...
s on the stream, those of William Boeing and the Seattle Golf and Country Club, call it "unnamed stream". The official USGS name, Boeing Creek, was entered into the GNIS
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...
database on September 10, 1979. Boeing owned much of the lower creek, including today's Shoreview and Boeing Creek Parks. He used the land primarily as a hunting retreat and had a small dam made, creating Hidden Lake which he used as a private fishing pond. In the 1930s Boeing plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted and logged north of Boeing Creek and sold the land to developers. The Innis Arden neighborhood began to be developed on this land after World War II. The land that today is Boeing Creek Park was partially logged, leaving a number of large mature conifers, some over tall. It is unclear why the area was only partially logged. The steep slopes may have made it too costly to fully log.
Much of Boeing Creek's upper course, to Hidden Lake, is within Boeing Creek Park, the northern part of Shoreview Park. Run by the City of Shoreline, these parks together span . William Boeing transferred the land that is now Shoreview Park to the Shoreline School District. In the mid-1970s land was cleared south of Hidden Lake for the construction of Shoreview High School. Funding failed and the school was never built. The cleared and terraced site has become infested with invasive species such as Scotch broom
''Cytisus scoparius'' ( syn. ''Sarothamnus scoparius''), the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for other ...
and Himalayan blackberry
''Rubus armeniacus'', the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of ''Rubus'' in the blackberry group ''Rubus'' subgenus ''Rubus'' series ''Discolores'' (P.J. Müll.) Focke. It is native to Armenia and Northern Iran, and wide ...
. In 1977 King County purchased the land from the Shoreline School District and established Shoreview Park. The City of Shoreline assumed ownership of Shoreview Park and adjoining Boeing Creek Park in 1997. Trails in these parks allow access to the middle portion of Boeing Creek. A few trails are official and maintained, including one that runs along the creek to Hidden Lake. There are a large number of "social trails" as well, which often climb steep, unstable slopes, increasing erosion and overall stream degradation. Every part of the creek is accessible, but the lake has some parts where it's not. There are people living along the lake in houses, and so that part is theirs.
Geology
The geology of the Boeing Creek's watershed is dominated by sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
s, gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
s, and silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
s created during the last glacial period. Materials present include subglacial till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
s made up of silt, sand, and gravel particles; advance outwash
An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and ca ...
deposits, made up of well-sorted sands and gravels; and transitional beds, made up of compacted clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
, silt, and sometimes sand.
Natural history
Fish
Salmonid
Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...
use that has been documented in Boeing Creek include chinook (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha''), chum (''Oncorhynchus keta'') and coho salmon
The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...
(''Oncorhynchus kisutch''), and sea run coastal cutthroat trout
The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroa ...
(''Oncorhynchus clarki clarki'').[ A study done in 1994 found juvenile coho salmon in the lower portion of Boeing Creek, below the Seattle Golf Course Dam.] The same study found cutthroat trout in most of Boeing Creek, up to the King County M1 R/D pond, near the creek's source. The Salmon Watchers Program have observed a site on river mile
A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...
0.1 of Boeing Creek since 2000. Coho and chum salmon are commonly seen, with fish counts ranging up to 160 chum salmon in 2003 and 89 coho salmon in 2001. Two chinook salmon were observed in 2000.
Fish populations are hindered by two storm water detention systems: the M-1 Dam (or "Boeing Creek Detention Facility"), an in-stream retention device on the main fork, and the Retention-Detention Ponds, an off-channel system in Boeing Creek Park.[ Three other structures influence stream ecology: Hidden Lake and its associated dam; an ]artificial waterfall
An artificial waterfall is a water feature or fountain which imitates a natural waterfall.
Artificial waterfalls have long been featured in traditional Japanese gardens, where they can serve to highlight a scene or to provide focus. The classic ...
, about ten feet high, constructed from concrete, just downstream from Innis Arden Way; and the "Seattle Country Club Golf Course Dam", a metal dam and pump station about 200 meters downstream of Innis Arden Way, which forms of reservoir that supplies the Seattle Country Club golf course with irrigation water. None of the dams provide fish passage
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as movemen ...
and therefore present a total barrier, limiting stream use by anadromous
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...
species to the lower third of the creek.[
]
Vegetation
The riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...
forest along Boeing Creek in Boeing Creek Park is an intact native ecosystem, mostly free of invasive species. There are a number of mature conifers that escaped being logged, including tall Douglas-fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
and Western White Pine
Western white pine (''Pinus monticola''), also called silver pine and California mountain pine, is a species of pine in the family Pinaceae. It occurs in mountain ranges of northwestern North America. It is the state tree of Idaho.
Description ...
trees. Salmonberry
''Rubus spectabilis'', the salmonberry, is a species of bramble in the rose family Rosaceae, native to the west coast of North America from west-central Alaska to California, inland as far as Idaho. Like many other species in the genus ''Rubus'' ...
shrubs are common along the creek. In some areas invasive species
An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...
such as Scotch broom
''Cytisus scoparius'' ( syn. ''Sarothamnus scoparius''), the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for other ...
, Himalayan blackberry
''Rubus armeniacus'', the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of ''Rubus'' in the blackberry group ''Rubus'' subgenus ''Rubus'' series ''Discolores'' (P.J. Müll.) Focke. It is native to Armenia and Northern Iran, and wide ...
, English ivy
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
, and Herb Robert are present. The native species
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...
of Sword fern Sword fern is a common name for several ferns and may refer to:
*''Nephrolepis'', a tropical genus of ferns, especially:
**''Nephrolepis exaltata'', commonly cultivated as a houseplant, including the Boston fern
*''Polystichum'', a cosmopolitan gen ...
and Stinging nettle
''Urtica dioica'', often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. Or ...
are common.
Modifications
Early modifications of Boeing Creek include the logging of the creek's watershed, the creation of Hidden Lake, and the construction of the Seattle Country Club Golf Course Dam. The creek's mouth was crossed by railway tracks, today owned by BNSF, running along the edge of Puget Sound.
In the 1960s a Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
mall complex was built at Aurora Avenue and 160th Street, covering Boeing Creek's wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
headwaters
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
.[ This and other urban development placed about of what had been upper Boeing Creek into a patchwork of pipes, most of which are on private property. Within this area there is one segment that flows free from pipes, located in Darnell Park. However a lack of detention facilities and an undersized pipe causes flooding in the vicinity of Darnell Park and contributes to erosive flows downstream. The City of Shoreline is planning on improving the drainage and reducing downstream erosion by building a detention basin and replacing the pipe.
The creek's watershed was heavily ]urbanized
''Urbanized'' is a documentary film directed by Gary Hustwit and released on 26 October 2011. It is considered the third of a three-part series on design known as the Design Trilogy; the first being ''Helvetica'', about the typeface, and the seco ...
after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, altering the runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
and discharge patterns. Increased runoff into Boeing Creek during rainy weather has caused more intense erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
and sediment transport
Sediment transport is the movement of solid particles (sediment), typically due to a combination of gravity acting on the sediment, and/or the movement of the fluid in which the sediment is entrained. Sediment transport occurs in natural system ...
, leading to the build-up of sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
in Hidden Lake. In the 1970s heavy rains flushed enough sediment down the creek to completely fill Hidden Lake, which became a meadow. Subsequently, King County Surface Water Division began efforts to control stormwater
Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
in Boeing Creek's watershed. In 1996 dredging
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
work restored Hidden Lake. On January 1, 1997, a winter storm created a large sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
which ruptured sewer lines on 175th Street, resulting in the Hidden Lake being filled with sediment again. The lake was dredged and restored again. The city of Shoreline budgets money for dredging Hidden Lake as needed and continues to seek a long-term solution to the problems of increased storm surge runoff, erosion, and sedimentation.
King County built a stormwater control system in Boeing Creek Park. A large detention basin
A detention basin or retarding basin is an excavated area installed on, or adjacent to, tributaries of rivers, streams, lakes or bays to protect against flooding and, in some cases, downstream erosion by storing water for a limited period of time ...
stores water during storms, reducing the creek's flood risk. The detention basin is augmented by an underground storage pipe designed to temporarily store up to 500,000 gallons of wastewater during large storms. This storage pipe is located under the detention basin in Boeing Creek Park. The pipe is in diameter and about long. Completed in 2007 by King County Public Works, the pipe's purpose is to help keep wastewater within the sewer system and reduce overflows into Puget Sound. The pipe conveys wastewater to the Hidden Lake Pump Station. At the same time the Hidden Lake Pump Station, located on Hidden Lake, was replaced in order to increase capacity. The old pump station lacked capacity, resulting in about three overflows into Puget Sound per year. Another related wastewater projet is the Boeing Creek Trunk Sewer Replacement. A major wastewater conveyance pipe, the Boeing Creek Trunk (BCT) was under capacity and had deteriorated with age. During heavy rain storms wastewater sometimes overflowed from manholes and into Puget Sound. These projects were all part of the Hidden Lake Pump Station replacement and sewer improvement project. Construction of this overall project began in 2006. The underground storage pipe in Boeing Creek Park was finished in 2007, Boeing Creek Trunk in 2008, and the Hidden Lake Pump Station in 2009. All of these wastewater systems are located very close to Boeing Creek, although the Boeing Creek Trunk extends north out of the creek's watershed. The City of Shoreline is planning additional stormwater management projects to reduce flooding and improve Boeing Creek's hydrology. Construction of the Pan Terra Pond and Pump Improvement Project began in 2009.
See also
* List of rivers of Washington
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Washington.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin. Respective tributaries are indented under each larger stream's name and are ordered downstream to upstream.
Fraser River (Britis ...
* Thornton Creek
Thornton Creek is of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. Its watershed, the largest in Seattle, exhibits relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting;Brokaw it is home to f ...
References
External links
Shoreline Aerial Photos, Boeing Creek
Washington State Department of Ecology
Aerial photo, Puget Sound, Boeing Creek
Washington State Department of Ecology, Coastal Atlas
{{authority control
Rivers of Washington (state)
Rivers of King County, Washington
Shoreline, Washington
Subterranean rivers of the United States