Haley Keizur
Students often refer to the body of water that occurs in the section of street between the gym and the main building during rain storms as “Lake Puyallup.”
But what is actually going on?
“With all of the rain we have been having, the storm drains cannot handle all of the rain,” Ray Thomas a junior said.
Science teacher Dave Wetzel has an answer to that question.
“The roofs and concrete that will not let water drain through them have raised the water table and lowered the amount of water the ground can hold. So when the Pacific Northwest gets a storm with high temperatures, the snow on Mt. Rainier melts and goes through the Puyallup River Valley where it floods anywhere that cannot hold a lot of water,” Wetzel said.
“Lake Puyallup” is highest towards the flag poles, but why is that?
“The storm sewer drains into Clark’s Creek. So when Clark’s Creek starts to flood, the water goes back up the sewer and floods the drains,” Wetzel said.
Some ways to alleviate the flooding have been proposed by students, some could be done by the city, while some others can be done by the students.
“Fix the way the roads are built and to flatten it out,” Thomas said.
There are multiple things the city could do, fixing the roads being one, retention ponds are another.
“We do not have enough retention ponds to store the water,” Wetzel said.
But there are some things everyone could do to alleviate this urban flooding.
“Students could pick up leaves and litter so they could not create blockages for the water,” Wetzel said.