Letter to the Editor: Fees from a larger number of users will not offset the environmental impact of the new pool
Friday, September 27, 2019
To the Editor:
If the proposed pool was a replacement of the same size as the current Shoreline pool I would be inclined to vote for it. But the pool on the November 2019 ballot is a much larger Olympic sized competitive pool that will have a huge environmental footprint. Pools of this size take 630,000 gallons to fill. While a filtering system will be in place to keep the water clean, users will be taking showers before and after they use the pool to keep themselves and the pool as clean as possible.
An Olympic sized competitive pool will no doubt attract students beyond our two Shoreline high schools. Students from such places as Woodway and Kenmore, as well as from public Seattle high schools (e.g, Ingraham, Ballard, Nathan Hale, and beyond) plus local private schools will want to use this pool. The fees generated by the use of this pool by such a larger number of users will not offset the environmental footprint of so many people driving to this pool from far distances. The water consumption of this pool and its use comes at a time when thousands of new residents will soon move into the many Shoreline apartment complexes now under construction, and this population increase may well exceed amount of fresh water available, given the consequences of global warming.
For this reason I will not vote for this pool.
Gini Paulsen
Shoreline
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3 comments:
Just so we compare apples to apples, the proposed lap pool would be 40% of Olympic size. Olympic is 50m long, with 10 lanes at 2.5m each for 25m wide in total. The proposed pool is 25m (or possibly yards -- this isn't clear) long, with 8 lanes at what I assume are the standard width.
An Olympic pool is a little over 1.5 times as long as the combined ends of the existing pool. The new pool would be substantially the same length as only the mid to deep end of the existing pool, but 25% wider.
These figures of course do not take into account the other planned leisure pools and water features.
Dan Adams
Shoreline
"...may well exceed the amount of fresh water available, given the consequences of global warming".
It doesn't work like that. While global warming is a real thing, I can see where your rationale is flawed.
Wait. "Global warming" is why you're against this? In one of the wettest places on earth? 650,000 gallons of water fell from the sky on Shoreline last night in 15 seconds. Come on. Stop with the hysteria.
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