Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times

The White River Estates near the White River in the town of Pacific is flooding due to water being released from a dam upriver. Headed out is resident Christian Guerra.

Not surprised

Editor, The Times:

Upon reading the Times' Jan. 9 coverage of the ongoing flooding ["Washout," Times, page one], I am shocked but not at all surprised. Three main points come to mind.

First, how can people living on the banks of rivers (as epitomized by the front-page photo) expect not to be flooded? Is some part of the term "floodplain" not clear?

Secondly, our region's rapidly growing population spurs unwise land management, altering watersheds in ways that reduce rainwater infiltration and increase surface runoff.

Finally, as humans continue to influence the global climate, experts predict that Western Washington will experience increased precipitation with more falling as rain than snow. In short, get used to it.

-- C. Thomas Schaefer, Seattle

Save our salmon

With the recent "once in a century" rainstorm and snow melt, I am concerned that the huge inflow of fresh water will desalinate Elliott Bay and the Puget Sound to the point of extreme stress for wildlife, especially salmon.

Who can possibly know how many salmon will be lost as the Sound's salt level drops precipitously?

Will Mayor Greg Nickels please help us save our salmon? Will he please have the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) take all the salt it didn't use during the snow storm and dump it into the Puget
Sound to restore salinity levels? We love our salmon and Nickels can help.

Let our battle cry be: "SOS, SOS: Save our Salmon, Salt Our Sound."

-- Lynn Schmeichel, Lacey