Seattle Press on Line - Northgate Mall Threatened With Lawsuit For Abusing Thornton Creek

Northgate Mall Threatened With Lawsuit For Abusing Thornton Creek

Oct 18, 2000 -- Simon Properties Group, which recently abandoned its plans to develop the South parking lot of Northgate Mall rather than continue to battle envirnomentalists' objections, may face further legal troubles connected to the creek.

Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund and statewide environmental group Waste Action Project have teamed up to bring a federal lawsuit against Simon over the impact of the mall's runoff on threatened chinook salmon.

On October 4, the organizations filed a 90-day Notice of Intent to Sue under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, alleging that the mall's stormwater runoff presents an "imminent and substantial endangerment" to Seattle's Thornton Creek and its salmon populations. Thornton Creek is Seattle's only creek with chinook salmon, which have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Because the mall has no detention system, runoff from the mall's 68 acres flows immediately to Thornton Creek whenever it rains, causing severe flooding and erosion.

According to Bob Vreeland, a retired fisheries biologist from the National Marine Fisheries Service, "The mall's stormwater surge carries pollutants and sediments that harm salmon reproduction and food sources, and the force of the flow flushes juvenile salmon from the stream. This is by far the greatest problem facing this salmon population. If we cannot control it, our efforts to recover these salmon will be lost."

Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund has led the fight against Simon Properties' proposal to expand the mall over Thornton Creek.

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