About Longfellow Creek
Introducing You to Longfellow Creek
by Bonnie Wong
Longfellow Creek is a three mile waterway running south to north through the Delridge Valley in West Seattle and emptying into the Duwamish River at the head of Elliott Bay. The stream channel is small, averaging two feet deep and three to six feet wide. To some people it is a beautiful urban oasis, and to others it is an unknown or forgotten ditch of water.
Longfellow Creek serves residents of the Delridge Community in West Seattle by providing open space, educational opportunities, flood control, recreation, wildlife habitat and economic benefits. It is one of the few natural waterways left within the Seattle City limits that remains largely un-piped (one quarter is piped). It is a small but important resource.
The goal of the project is to reduce non-point source pollution within the Longfellow Creek Watershed through education and community organization. The key to successful rehabilitation of the creek lies with the people of the Longfellow Creek Watershed.
A watershed is all the land around the creek which catches water and funnels it down into the creek. The boundaries of the Longfellow Creek Watershed are shown on the Watershed Map (15K). The Longfellow Creek drainage basin (i.e. the watershed) is almost 3,000 acres in area. The headwaters (the beginning) of Longfellow Creek are at Roxhill Park (near the Westwood Village Shopping Center), which was originally a natural wetland and peat bog. Areas like the original Roxhill wetland act as a storage place when large storms dump huge amounts of water into the watershed. Storage and slow release prevent flooding and ensure adequate water supply during the dry season.
Pollution from urban development in Longfellow Creek has caused deterioration of the once-pristine stream. Over half of the pollution in the creek comes from individual sources such as fertilizers, pesticides, oil, paint and gasoline residues. Loose soil is also a source of pollution. Collectively, these types of pollution are known as non-point source pollution and the sources are very difficult to pinpoint. When rain falls in a watershed, these pollutants are washed down into the creek either directly, or indirectly through the storm sewers. This is called runoff. The water quality in urban waterways such as Longfellow Creek is generally much worse during or immediately after precipitation.