Ravenna Creek
Encyclopedia
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
in the Ravenna
Ravenna, Seattle, Washington
Ravenna is a neighborhood in northeastern Seattle, Washington named after Ravenna, Italy. Though Ravenna is considered a residential neighborhood, it also is home to several businesses such as the University Village Shopping Center...
and Roosevelt
Roosevelt, Seattle, Washington
Roosevelt is a neighborhood in north Seattle, Washington. Its main thoroughfare, originally 10th Avenue, was renamed Roosevelt Way upon Theodore Roosevelt's death in 1919...
neighborhoods of Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Washington, whose present daylighted length of nearly 3500 feet (1.1 km) is entirely within Cowen and Ravenna parks.
Ravenna Creek used to drain Green Lake
Green Lake (Seattle)
Green Lake is a freshwater lake in north central Seattle, Washington, USA, within Green Lake Park. The park is surrounded by the Green Lake neighborhood to the north and east, the Wallingford neighborhood to the south, the Phinney Ridge neighborhood to the west, and Woodland Park to the southwest...
into Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
's Union Bay, but urban development and the lowering of the two lakes in 1911 and 1916 resulted in the disappearance of the creekbed
Stream bed
A stream bed is the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek; the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins, during all but flood stage, are known as the stream banks or river banks. In fact, a flood occurs when a stream overflows its banks and flows onto...
between Green Lake and Cowen Park and between Ravenna Park
Ravenna Park (Seattle)
Ravenna Park and Cowen Park comprise a single contiguous recreation and green space in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States...
and Union Bay. Ravenna Creek's current source is a wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
in the northwest corner of Cowen Park, at NE 62nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue NE. It is also fed by springs throughout Ravenna Park, and is joined there by a second branch which begins near the intersection of NE 65th Street and 23rd Avenue NE. Until 2006, the creek ended at a sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
grate where the park's trail system opened into a soccer field.
A daylighting
Daylighting (streams)
In urban design and urban planning, daylighting is the redirection of a stream into an above-ground channel. Typically, the goal is to restore a stream of water to a more natural state...
project completed in May 2006 disconnected the creek from the sewer system and extended its bed 650 feet (198 m) towards the southeast corner of Ravenna Park, at which point it enters a pipeline. This pipeline, which runs southward along 25th Avenue NE to the NE 45th Street viaduct, empties into University Slough, thereby reconnecting Ravenna Creek to Lake Washington.
In 2008, a major sewage spill of 8 million gallons of raw sewage
Wastewater
Wastewater is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It comprises liquid waste discharged by domestic residences, commercial properties, industry, and/or agriculture and can encompass a wide range of potential contaminants and concentrations...
flooded the creek in an accident caused by King County utility crews working nearby.
See also
- Cowen Park–Ravenna Park and Ravenna Creek
- Daylighting (streams)Daylighting (streams)In urban design and urban planning, daylighting is the redirection of a stream into an above-ground channel. Typically, the goal is to restore a stream of water to a more natural state...
- StreamStreamA stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
- Water resourcesWater resourcesWater resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....
- List of rivers of Washington
- Thornton CreekThornton CreekThornton Creek is 18 miles of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. The creek is the largest watershed in Seattle, draining a region of relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting, home to frogs, newts, ducks, other birds, and...
- Yesler CreekYesler CreekYesler Creek is a stream that originates in the Bryant and Wedgwood neighborhoods of Seattle, Washington and flows southward to empty into Union Bay of Lake Washington. Portions are daylighted, such as those flowing between 39th and 40th Avenue NE and through Burke Gilman Park...