Physics students from Skyline, Liberty and Issaquah high schools have the chance to practice what real physicists do at the Tri-High Physics Symposium.

The event is modeled after what physicists do when they have research and discoveries to share with their contemporaries, according to a press release from the Issaquah School District.

Presentations will begin at 5 p.m. May 21 at Skyline High School, 1122 228th Ave. S.E., Sammamish. Students will present their physics projects, give feedback to each other and be scored by their teachers.

The safety campaign marks the second year King County Metro has teamed up with the Seattle Department of Transportation, Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Cascade Bicycle Club on transit bus ads that remind bus operators and cyclists to be on the lookout for each other.

During Bike Month and heading into summer months, there is a significant increase in the number of cyclists on our roads.

Metro Transit has posted five new bus/bike safety videos online to help show what cyclists and drivers can do to see each other and improve safety. The updated video series hosted on Metro’s bike travel page, includes segments on passing, turning, loading a bike, traveling predictably and bicycle improvements around the city.

Metro and cycle advocates hope the videos and bus ads will help improve awareness and make this a safer summer for all who share the road.

School districts and private schools will have the ability to have stock epinephrine auto injectors prescribed to their schools for the treatment or avoidance of severe allergic reactions, thanks to a bill which was signed into law May 16.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, according to a press release from the Washington State Legislature.

In the event of a severe allergic reaction, a victim may rapidly experience an itchy rash, throat swelling and, if left untreated, could go into anaphylactic shock. An injection of epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline, can help treat or avoid a severe reaction. Common causes of allergic reactions include food, insect bites or stings, and medications.

If a student has a personal prescription for epinephrine, under the bill, a school nurse or designated trained school personnel may administer an EpiPen. However, if a student does not have a prescription, only a school nurse may administer the medicine.

Look for this year’s Lest We Forget Section in the May 22 issue of the Issaquah Press.

View past sections.

By Peter Clark
Janet Sailer, communications manager for the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, stands at a storm water collection pond in the Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery in the Issaquah Highlands.

A dispute flared into the public eye May 6 as city officials and the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District sparred over storm water pollution and Issaquah’s intentions to take over principal wells owned by the district.

Though the state Department of Ecology is unconvinced of health risks, the district launched a campaign to highlight its concerns. It outlined the threat it found over an impending Department of Ecology permit that would allow the city to resume using the Port Blakely-installed Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery to drain storm water runoff into the aquifer, which eventually makes its way back into homes.

When the Issaquah Highlands was developed, a system was needed to handle the storm runoff that would course through the new streets and cleared spaces. That water was collected by the gallery and injected back into the aquifer sitting at the foot of the rise on which the highlands were built. That is until the Washington Department of Ecology ceased Issaquah’s injection into the aquifer in 2008 over sampling that found high rates of fecal coliform and heavy metals being put into the aquifer.

Fears for contamination, survival

District officials said they are worried about the potential resumption of Issaquah injecting storm water back into the aquifer through the gallery. The district provides water for 54,000 residents in Issaquah, Sammamish and unincorporated King County.

“We are extremely concerned with the degradation of ground water,” District General Manager Jay Krauss said.

The location of the gallery is a scant 600 feet away from an important well field in the district’s operation, labeled wells seven, eight and nine. Krauss cited data gathered by Scott Coffey, the district’s consultant hydrogeologist, that suggested those contaminants would affect groundwater resources.

“We conclude that those pollutants would immigrate to well nine in six to eight weeks,” Krauss said, adding that more than 50 percent of the resources the district draws for tap water comes from that well field. “Experts tell us there is a high possibility for water degradation.”

Without use of the gallery for the past four years, Issaquah has diverted the storm water over run into the north fork of the Issaquah creek. At the same time, the district has not used well nine since the cessation, voicing concerns of remnant pollution.

Through a public records request, Krauss said he was able to unearth 18,000 pages of documents and correspondence that revealed to the district a deeper goal of the city.

“In their public records, there were five options for dealing with the LRIG,” Krauss said. “One of those options is to take over district wells.”

While the district owns the wells, they sit on Issaquah land. The option of which Krauss said seeks to “assume the portion of the district that lies within incorporated city limits. This would place ownership of the district’s well and the well site in city ownership. This would compromise the district’s standing in a claim that the well is affected by the LRIG.”

According to the obtained documents, though the option is labeled as carrying the highest legal risk and cost, this is the one that the city is actively pursuing.

In the meantime, the Department of Ecology is in the process of putting together a permit for the city to resume the aquifer injection. It should be issued this month.

District officials, aside from worries of contamination at the site, said they also fear what the loss of those wells would do to their customers.

“The permit will give them a lot of latitude to let them do what they want to do,” District Communications Manager Janet Sailer said regarding Issaquah. “If we lose those water resources, our customer rates could go up, because regional water would be more expensive.”

State stands by its actions

The state Department of Ecology does not share the district’s fears. Media Relations Manager Larry Altos and Unit Supervisor Jerry Shervey, with the Department of Ecology, said the permit to allow Issaquah to use the gallery was part of ongoing testing. They said that they did not cease the city’s operation in 2008 because of damage done to the aquifer, but rather to thoroughly monitor the conditions in case damage was being done.

“We told Issaquah to stop using the LRIG to check the quality of the storm water and the groundwater,” Altos said. “We will continue to monitor while they use the system at a lower rate of discharge.”

He said that they expect the continued use of the system, at a decreased flow, to meet the critical standards the department has set for contaminants.

“We are very cognizant of the fact that there are these five wells near the LRIG,” Shervey said. “There are certain requirements that those wells must meet or the LRIG will be shut down.”

Through the Department of Ecology’s established guidelines and standards, Altos said that they have routine qualifications for storm water treatment. He said that there is nothing unusual about the storm water situation in Issaquah.

Both officials mentioned the transparency the department tried to bring to the permit process. When the permit is resubmitted to Issaquah this month, there will be a full 30 days of public comment regarding its implementation.

Issaquah’s reply

Issaquah staff members see the accusations from the district as two separate issues: one involving the city’s dedication to protecting ground water resources and one involving potentially assuming the district’s wells.

Officials said they do not see any reason for introducing any advanced treatment options into the gallery. Meaning to save residents from unnecessary costs, city Economic Development Director Keith Niven said there did not appear to be any reason to further treat or find alternative methods to handle the storm water. The Department of Ecology’s approval is the foundation for what the city alleges is a safe practice.

“We’re taking a fiduciary stance for our citizens,” he said. “Infiltration is a good way to sustainably deal with storm water runoff. We don’t believe that it needs to be treated.”

Public Works Engineering Director Sheldon Lynne maintained that the district already chlorinated the water as it drew it from the well. Additionally, he said that the diversion into Issaquah Creek has not shown to be overly detrimental.

“There hasn’t been any significant impact on the creek,” he said. “But, the state, the feds and we would prefer it to not be put into the creek.”

Other questions arise when considering the gas station to be built in the highlands and the increased possibility of gasoline filtering into the aquifer. After Port Blakely asked the city to lift that development limitation on its construction, Issaquah consented with conditions.

“It had to be built so that any spills on the site would be contained,” Niven said. “It’s built like a bath tub.”

An underground vault for overflow is also included in the building plans. Should a spill occur, the plans call for it to be isolated and dealt with as a hazardous substance.

“To say it’s untreated is not accurate,” Niven added about the storm water. “At some point, you have to say that it’s a bad use of taxpayer money.”

As for the city’s assumption of the wells, Issaquah officials openly admitted to investigating the option.

“The city’s considering an assumption of the district’s wells,” Niven said simply. “Cities eventually take over these private service districts. There is a study under way that we will have later this year.”

He said the city looked to bring the best services to its people and that the continuation of the district offering those utilities would be inefficient.

“It would take a layer of government, permitting and approval out of the process,” Niven said. “It would be good for the city.”

He said he found the framing of the district’s argument to be one of self-preservation, that it was trying to maintain its resources in the face of growing competition and fluctuating neighboring governments. Above everything else, both Niven and Lynne maintained that the district’s contention was split between storm water operation the Department of Ecology oversees and an inquiry into assuming wells for the benefit of Issaquah’s residents.

“It’s very important to know that these are two issues,” Lynne said.

The district has initiated a campaign to spread its message to the public. Frustrated by what it sees as an increasing threat to its resources, it has asked customers to voice worries to city leaders.

“Their scope is to take it cradle to grave and diminish our standing with the Department of Ecology,” Krauss said. “It’s time to let the public know what’s going on. This is a unilateral movement by the city to take us over.”

But because the object of the underground competition is to determine the best-looking, or “hottest,” girls in school, administrators, teachers and many students are eager to stamp it out.

Anonymous promoters of May Madness at Issaquah High have once again posted on a Facebook page 64 yearbook-style photos of girls for one-on-one matchups in brackets patterned after sports tournaments. A girl’s name can be entered in or withheld from the contest without her permission.

Administrators have tried, without success, to find out who’s behind this year’s competition, but students have gotten more tech-savvy and stayed one step ahead of the school, Issaquah School District spokeswoman Sara Niegowski said.

Last year, the page had a direct link to the brackets and voting, but no currently functioning link is apparent on the site this year.

“Issaquah High School does not condone in any way the actions of the individuals perpetuating this practice. If there is an appearance of apathy on the part of the school and district, it is misleading,” Principal Paula Phelps wrote in an email to parents. “We are working with the Issaquah Police Department to identify the site location and the individuals involved. With the assistance of the cybercrimes detective we were able to shut down the site last year.”

May Madness, Niegowski said, “preys on a lot of insecurities that already exist in adolescents.”

Issaquah High officials keep in touch with police, ask hosting websites to shut down May Madness, and work “back channels” to find out from students who might be responsible.

Even if May Madness promoters can be identified, they can be disciplined only if they bring that outside activity onto campus or if the activity causes a disruption at school, Niegowski said.

Issaquah High’s contest lost a bit of steam last year after city police warned some students they could be guilty of criminal computer trespass for using other people’s login credentials, police Cmdr. Scott Behrbaum said.

But, police haven’t received any criminal complaints this year and aren’t as involved as they were last year, Behrbaum said.

Police and school officials urged parents to talk to their children about how they use computers and whether they might be inflicting emotional pain on other students.

Niegowski said she believes most students at Issaquah High — including boys — are unhappy with the hot-girl contest.

“A lot of them say this isn’t what I’m about and I don’t like the fact that our school is getting this reputation, and I don’t view females this way,” she said.

“I would ask that parents take a moment to speak with your children about the negative impact of this activity. In past years, when we have spoken with parents whose students were involved in this activity, we have been surprised by them finding our outrage overblown and amusing,” Phelps wrote in her email. “There is nothing amusing about this. It is degrading and demoralizing. Issaquah High School is better than this.”

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com. Press Managing Editor contributed to this story. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

On the Web

To help combat publicity about the contest, some Issaquah High School students posted a video on You Tube that talks about the contest and about positive things at the school. View it at http://youtu.be/lL4-VSrm4Vs.

Every two years, students across the state are asked to voluntarily take an anonymous survey of nearly 250 questions about risky behaviors and other items related to their well-being. The survey — a joint effort between the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Family Policy Council and several other state agencies — was administered in October to 295,899 Washington students, in grades six, eight, 10 and 12.

A majority of students from all five of the district’s middle schools participated, as well as many from Liberty and Issaquah high schools. Sixty-nine percent (348 students) of the sophomore class at Skyline High School also took part. Seniors there, however, did not because of a registration error.

A summary of the results was presented at the April 24 Issaquah School Board meeting.

“This is truly a reflection on our community,” Dennis Wright, the district’s director of career and counselling services, said during his presentation to the board. “In many ways, we are much like the state of Washington. Most communities are having these issues.”

Alcohol use higher than state average

When asked if they had ever drank an alcoholic beverage, fewer of Issaquah’s sixth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students (20, 25 and 47 percent) answered yes than the state average (23, 35 and 52 percent) for their age.

That trend didn’t hold true for high school seniors. Statewide, 68 percent of 12th-grade students reported having drank alcohol at least once. The rate was about the same at both Issaquah and Liberty.

The high school numbers did not stay the same when it came to the amount and frequency. Statewide, 36 percent said they had consumed at least one drink in the past 30 days and 22 percent said they had recently had a drinking binge, which the survey defined as having five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks. At Liberty, 45 percent of the seniors surveyed said they drank in the past month and 29 percent admitted to binge drinking. The rate of binge drinking rose to 32 percent at Issaquah, while having consumed alcohol in the past 30 days was 43 percent.

“If I brought you math scores and our kids were significantly lower than the state average we’d be pretty alarmed,” said Ron Thiele, the district’s associate superintendent. “We should be pretty alarmed when are kids’ binge drinking scores are higher than the state average.”

Smoking, drugs not as prevalent

Local seniors may admit to drinking more often then their peers elsewhere, but according to the survey, they don’t smoke tobacco or marijuana as much. Nor do they use as many prescription drugs or illegal drugs, like cocaine and meth.

“I do believe that part of living in a very affluent community is the possibility that liquor cabinets are well-stocked,” Wright said.

School board member Suzanne Weaver agreed and noted that local students reported it is easier to get alcohol than cigarettes.

Twenty-two percent of sophomores in the state described getting alcohol as “very hard.” That number dropped to 15 percent for the Issaquah School District. Statewide, as well as locally, a little more than 30 percent of sophomores described getting cigarettes as “very hard.”

“I thought it was interesting, when you looked at the full survey, that kids have really gotten the message about tobacco,” Weaver said. “And then, you look at marijuana and alcohol and it’s no big deal.”

While nearly one-fourth of local sophomores and almost half of their senior upperclassmen drank in the past month, only between 6 percent and 9 percent said they smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days. About one-third of that same group said they had smoked pot recently.

“Right now, probably anybody who watches TV has seen the TV commercial of the woman speaking through her trachea,” Thiele said, “that’s the image of smoking in America today that our kids see on TV. Let’s think about some of the alcohol commercials on TV.”

As he said that members of the board and Superintendent Steve Rasmussen began commenting at once about how drinking commercials are fun and centered on sporting events.

“So, it’s a diametrically opposed image,” Thiele added.

Bullying, considering suicide also problems

Alison Meryweather, the newest member of the board, said she had thought the message had also gotten out about the dangers of drinking and driving, and was surprised by the survey results.

All students, except the sixth-graders, were asked if they had ridden with a driver who had been drinking in the past 30 days. Thirteen percent of eighth-graders said they had; 17 percent of 10th-graders, 14 percent of Liberty seniors and 19 percent of Issaquah seniors also answered yes.

“That was very eye-opening to me to see, not just the binge drinking, but getting in a vehicle, which as we know has deadly consequences,” Meryweather said.

The survey also addressed several other issues including bullying and depression. Around Washington and Issaquah, about one-fourth to one-third of students surveyed said they had been bullied in the past 30 days. When it came to depression, local students were slightly below the state average. Locally, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 29 percent of sophomores said they had experienced depressed feelings in the past year. Another 12 percent in grade eight and 20 percent in grade 10 said they had seriously considered suicide in the past year.

“I look at the numbers and I think it’s alarming,” board president Brian Deagle said. “It is a sad statement on what our kids are going through, and I think we can do more.”

This was the first year that students in eighth, 10th and 12th grade were asked if whether or not they had sex. Statewide, 15 percent of eighth-graders and one-third of sophomores said they had. In Issaquah, those rates dropped to 8 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Nearly half of all those who said they had had intercourse said that they did not use a condom.

Learn more

• The complete results can be found on the district’s website, www.issaquah.wednet.edu. From the homepage, click on “Health policies and information” under the family resources tab, before following the link “Healthy Youth Survey 2012.”
• he Issaquah Community Network and Drug Free Community Coalition are hosting a forum from 8-9:30 a.m., May 16. The group will meet in the council chambers of Sammamish City Hall to discuss ways to reduce teen alcohol and drug use.

Youth depression and suicide

Nearly one-third of Washington students reported experiencing depressed feelings in the past year, and the number of those who seriously considered suicide was not that much lower. Here’s how local students answered. Numbers reflect the percent of students who said they had those feelings.

Eighth grade

School                  Depressed           Contemplated suicide

Pine Lake              14                         10

Beaver Lake          16                         10

Issaquah                23                        16

Maywood              19                         12

Pacific Cascade     13                         13

10th grade

Issaquah              31                           20

Liberty                30                            17

Skyline                26                            20

12th grade

Issaquah           31                             11

Liberty              31                              19

Note: Skyline High School seniors did not take part in the survey because of a registration error.

Only four days after the state approved Erikson Logging’s application to clear-cut sections of a Squak Mountain parcel, King County announced concrete plans to purchase it from developers.

Since the announcement of the company’s intention to harvest old-growth trees in the area in January, concerted efforts have been made by King County and local group Save Squak to find a way to protect the land. On May 8, the county announced it had struck a deal with the Trust for Public Land, which agreed to buy the 220-acre parcel and accept payment from the county over time.

“I’m really pleased. This has come together very well,” County Executive Dow Constantine said in a phone interview. His office and the Parks Department have been the primary driver to find a way to purchase the land. “We thought it would be better to preserve it for recreation and habitat.”

The county had explored numerous ways to reach the same results. Through the Conservations Futures program, the proposal for the county to purchase the land over time was reviewed recently on a tour through the area. Other attempts to find funding had also been forwarded through local action. Then, seeing the necessity for quick action after the logging rights were acquired, the Trust for Public Land stepped in.

The trust is a national nonprofit that conserves land for multiple uses. It agreed to enter negotiations with the current landowners to purchase the property and to allow the county to pay it back. The trust was involved with the property from an early stage and was able to reach a purchase option with the logging outfit. Constantine spoke graciously about the landowner, Kurt Erikson, and his willingness to cooperate. Through the trust’s agreement, Constantine said Erikson agreed to hold off on logging activities.

“He was very helpful, very good to work with,” Constantine said. “For all involved, it’s a better value proposition. We have a long-term plan to extend the trail system there. This adds to the opportunity for trails, and it preserves the recreational value of the mountain.”

Attempts to reach Erikson for comment were unsuccessful.

Dave Kappler, the co-founder of Save Squak, said he was encouraged by the outcome.

“It’s a real significant contribution, and I’m definitely pleased that the county stepped up,” he said. “It has been an amazingly quick thing. There are other properties, but they don’t have the imminent timeline.”

Though these steps have been taken, it is not the end of the issue. The county still has to secure the funding, which is still up for negotiation. Constantine said that there is bipartisan support for purchase on the council, but a vote to renew the parks levy could determine the outcome.

“A lot of this depends on the passing of the parks levy,” Constantine said. Already approved by the County Council, it will appear on an August ballot for a voter decision.

Kappler was just as fervent about the need for the community to back the levy, if it wanted to keep the parcel from development.

“Now, we’ve really got to get out there and support the King County levy,” he said.

An appraisal of the land is under way and the trust expects to establish a firm price by the end of June. Should the parks levy be renewed, the county would expect to begin paying the trust in phases and have it paid for by 2015, Constantine said.