Lake Forest Park's flooding is caused by many factors, including upstream and in-city development, increased run-off from streets and buildings, loss of tree canopy and other vegetation, and alterations to the natural stream channels. Most notably, the siting of the Town Center years ago paved over wetlands and re-routed Lyon Creek to an unnatural channel with too-small culverts located too near to McAleer Creek, creating the situation where Lyon Creek overflows into McAleer during peak storm flows. These extreme flooding events have caused property damage and degradation to the streams. The City addressed some localized Sheridan Beach flooding by installing an overflow bypass pipe on McAleer Creek, to some success. The bypass pipe was designed to divert high flows out of the creek, and pipe the water directly to Lake Washington. The city is now proposing another, much longer and more expensive, bypass pipe project for Lyon Creek. The proposed intake will be near 178th St. and the pipe will be routed underneath Ballinger Way, past the Town Center, with the outflow at the Civic Club property and Lyon Creek Waterfront Park. The City's proposal recognizes that Lyon Creek Waterfront Park and possibly the Civic Club property will be adversely impacted by floodwater outfall from a bypass pipe.

This is the most environmentally significant project to be considered in our city in a long while. The potential impacts are numerous and severe, and there are much better alternatives which we feel the City has not adequately considered. Bypass pipes in other jurisdictions often have harmed the streams in which they were built, by dewatering channels downstream of the bypass and making streams inhospitable to fish. We have formally requested that the City complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Lyon Creek bypass proposal. The environmental issues created by this project need the intensity of study that only an EIS can provide. We expect that our environmentally-friendly city will use the process fully, to assure the safety of our streams and fish for generations to come.