Divers come up with new hook on lake's spikes

Tag : Metal Glass

Spikes pulled from the bottom of Green Lake, now a total of 86, mayturn out to be less ominous and more practical than originallythought and have probably been in the water much longer than themonth or two park officials originally estimated.
Several of the 2-foot or longer pieces of metal recovered by diversand snorkelers Friday had hooked tops like candy canes. Somespeculated that the spikes, about as thick as pencils, had beenused long ago to tether something to the bottom of the lake.
"Not in the last 20 years," said park officials.
When looked at closely, it appeared that the hook tops on some hadcorroded and fallen off the metal rods. What's left looks like aspike.
The latest bunch of heavily corroded rods were turned over to theSeattle Police Department, which started an investigation afterseveral spikes were found near the dock of the Small Craft Centerearlier this week.
"This does not change the fact that we do have an active andongoing investigation into this matter. We do ask that anyone withany information regarding these spikes do call the Seattle PoliceDepartment," said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb. "The case hasbeen assigned to detectives and they are currently working on it."
Pat Boltz was at the lake with his daughter and wife July 13 whenhe cut his foot on one of the spikes, prompting a closer look.Police divers found nearly 40 more the next day.
The half-dozen divers and snorkelers Friday were from the VirginiaMason Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. When they heard about thespike discovery earlier this week, they volunteered to jump in andhelp.
Parks officials said Friday afternoon that they will hireprofessional divers to scour the underwater areas near Green Lakebeaches and the Small Craft Center to protect the safety of parkpatrons. The lake will remain open.
Malia Langworthy, a spokeswoman for Seattle Parks and Recreation,said that with the new information about the hooked tops, they arestarting to do some research to see if the department has a recordof using metal hooks in the past, for example, to fasten somethingused in the perennial fight against underwater weeds.
Green Lake is plagued by milfoil, a grassy weed that grows in theshallower waters. The city has battled algae and green scum in thelake for nearly a century, undertaking a massive dredging effort inthe 1930s and pouring in chemicals to clean the water. But thealgae returned in the 1940s, and the weeds soon after.
Dozens of projects have been done in the lake over the decades toturn it into a swimming, fishing, rowing and entertainment area.
In the past, the city has stretched a large fabric barrier over thebottom of the lake to try to keep the weeds under control,especially near the craft center.
Since the 1980s, the parks department has used black plasticanchors with cords to hold the fabric in place.
"Certainly there may have been a time when some other method wasused," said Kathy Whitman, aquatics manager for the parksdepartment. "What we have here is hard to explain,"
Divers have scoured the lake bottom in past years, always bringingup trash, but never mentioning spikes, said Jason Frisk with theSmall Craft Center.
"What gets me is that in 2005 we cleaned up the same area, and wedidn't see a single one of these spikes," said Frisk.
Others working around the lake said the newly discovered hooks justdeepened the mystery of the spikes.
"What has happened that has changed the lake that much, that allthe spikes are now visible?" asked Whitman.
Lyn Sorensen, who stopped at Green Lake to watch the activityFriday morning, said he was part of a diving team that pulled trashoff the bottom of the lake in the 1980s. He said he came to thesurface with a metal hook and was told at that time, by someonefrom the parks department, not to pull them out because they wereimportant.
Besides the metal spikes and hooks found Friday, diving crews alsopulled an eclectic bunch of junk from the lake: a faded orangetraffic cone, a broken bullhorn, glass bottles and shards and arecycling bin.