The city of Seattle is launching its “Puget Sound Starts Here” water quality education campaign at Naked City Brewery & Taphouse, 8564 Greenwood Ave. N., Thursday. The campaign features drink coasters with an environmental message about how to reduce the impacts of storm water runoff on Puget Sound.

Thanks in part to a grant from the Puget Sound Partnership, the coasters are being distributed by community partners to restaurants, bars, and cafes in The Piper’s, Thornton, and Longfellow Creek watershed neighborhoods. These fun and colorful messages will provide an opportunity for Seattle residents to learn what they can do to improve the health of local waterways and Puget Sound every time they lift a glass.

30,000 coasters will be distributed; they describe four actions that will help reduce pollution: picking up after your pet, preventing automotive leaks, not using pesticides and fertilizers in your yard, and planting more trees. All the coasters share the same message on back: In Seattle, 46,000 storm drains carry untreated runoff directly to our waterways.

The coasters will be available at other participating restaurants after August 5, including these Greenwood businesses: Pig N’ Whistle, Gainsbourg, Sip & Ship, Wheatless in Seattle, 74th Street Ale House, Prost!, Pillager’s Pub, Pub at Piper’s Creek, and Bleacher’s, just to name a few.

Thursday’s event is from 6-10 p.m. Naked City is family-friendly until 10 p.m. Limited edition I “heart” Puget Sound T-shirts will only be available at the kick-off event.

For brown-thumbed gardeners such as myself, this is a welcome bit of news. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and the Saving Water Partnership have produced “The Plant List,” a guide to help you choose the right plant for the right place in your garden.

When choosing plants, the most important consideration should be whether a site provides the conditions a specific plant needs to thrive. Soil type, drainage, sun and shade all affect a plant’s health, appearance and maintenance needs.

The Plant List highlights trees, shrubs and other plants that will thrive in different conditions, including wet soils, dry soils and drought, as well as sunny and shady sites. The Plant List also offers a comprehensive list of native plants that are suited to the northwest.

“When gardeners match the right plant to the right place in their garden, the plants will flourish naturally” said Liz Fikejs, Acting Resource Conservation Manager with SPU. “The Plant List helps gardeners find beautiful plants that will thrive in their gardens without wasting water, pesticides and fertilizers trying to grow plants in places they are not suited.”

When planting new plants, Fikejs advises gardeners to dig one to three inches of compost into new beds – which helps sandy soils hold nutrients and water, and loosens clay soils – and spread a layer of mulch, such as leaves, wood chips, compost, or grass clippings around plants on the soil surface, keeping it about an inch away from stems.

A car hit a fire hydrant at 83rd and Greenwood, sending water through the neighborhood last night, bringing back reminders of the downtown Greenwood water main break in August. Anna tells us she saw water running down the street as far away as 79th and Dayton at about 10:30 p.m.

Stacy provided this account of the incident:

A car knocked over a fire hydrant on the corner of 83rd and Greenwood. It then ran into the corner of the building there. I am not sure, but I think the occupants of the car had only minor injuries. Right now the police are there trying to turn the water off, and have part of that intersection blocked off.
Water is running down that street and along Dayton. It’s pretty deep in the street - you wouldn’t want to bicycle through it. It’s very deep at 80th and Dayton - please be careful driving.

According to Seattle Public Utilities, the impact snapped off the hydrant underground. They’ll dig it up and repair it within a week. It could even be done in the next day or so if there isn’t another working hydrant within 300 feet.

Update 10/7: Artman1951 sent us some photos of the scene the following day and we’re just getting around to posting them. Thanks, Artman!

Here’s the scene:

Here’s the remains of the hydrant.

Here’s the wall the car struck.