There were unintended consequences about a year and a half ago when Seattle City Light put in new transmission lines on Elliott Avenue West to handle the increased power needs for Amgen and development in South Lake Union, according to City Light worker Leo Schmitz.
The power lines were also strung higher than they used to be, and that suddenly turned the lines above Albert Lee Appliances into a comfortable roosting area for hundreds of pigeons that naturally did what birds do, complained Albert Lee.
"It is a real mess," he said of the droppings that coat the sidewalk and crosswalk in front of his building. "You've got to clean it off every day; it's a constant battle," Lee said. "You'd think it would be a freaking health hazard."
And the pesky pigeons haven't targeted just the sidewalk. "I had to repaint the whole front of the building [twice]," Lee said, explaining that attempts to clean up the mess with a power washer was too hard on the building.
His isn't the only business that has felt the effects of the fowl fusillades. So has the Seattle Train Center across the street, said owner Wanda Holmes, who keeps towels handy for her customers because of the problem.
"People were getting bombarded," she said. "It was quite nasty." Holmes said that she's also had to get her car repainted because of the bird droppings.
The business owner added that she knows for a fact that the Seattle School District puts its people in hazmat suits when they clean up bird poop on school property. "That's what really got me going."
So Holmes complained to City Light, but she said she got a runaround. City Light said it was probably an Animal Control problem, but Animal Control said it was City Light's problem, Holmes groused. "I was not looking for any bird to get hurt," she explained, "just for people to be able to walk by without ruining their day."
Lee said he, too, complained to City Light - also to no avail. "I called twice," he said.
However, said City Light spokesman Dan Williams, a call from the News about the foul issue to the agency a couple of months ago set off a chain reaction that brought results on the morning of May 9.
That's when a City Light crew finally took steps to solve the pigeon-poop problem by installing what Williams said "are purported to be bird-control devices."
The $25 devices - which are clipped to the wires - are spinning plastic rectangles that have reflecting white and orange panels on them. "All the literature says the movement, the colors, the change in the environment makes them [birds] go away," said City Light's Schmitz as a crew got ready to install 14 of the devices.
It's a pilot project for City Light and the result of talks with other utilities in the country, explained Rod Siverson, manager of north electric service and construction for the agency. "The biggest thing is finding out if they work," he added.
"It seems to be doing the job," Holmes said a few days after the devices were installed. "It doesn't scare all of them away," she said. "There were two up there yes-terday trying to mate."
A distracted pair aside, the hundred of pigeons that used to roost across the street from Holmes' shop have all but disappeared from the lines with the twirling devices on them.
The devices don't extend as far as the power lines above the crosswalk yet, and pigeons are still grouping and presumably pooping there. But Holmes said she expects the devices will be added to that spot as well.
Time will tell if the devices continue to scare the birds away, conceded Siverson. "If this doesn't work, we'll go back to the drawing board," he said. "We'll continue to work with [Lee and Holmes] till we find an acceptable solution."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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