Everybody out of the water: City forbids swimming in ship canal

Swimming will be banned in the Lake Washington Ship Canal beginning Thursday under a city ordinance passed last month.

"It's a response to an ongoing problem," health department spokesman James Apa said of the ordinance, part of a package of water-safety revisions.

Health officials said about one person a year has drowned in the canal in the past decade.

Last year, Clayton Griffin, 17, of Redmond, drowned on a spur-of-the-moment swim across the Fremont Cut from Queen Anne to Fremont.

The new law is aimed particularly at popular swimming spots along the canal such as the Montlake and Fremont cuts and the waters in front of Gas Works Park.

"This is good legislation," said Kathy Whitman, aquatics manager for the Seattle Parks Department. "We really do see the risk and the risky activities that take place."

Whitman cited the use of rope swings along the Fremont Cut and unsupervised children jumping into the Montlake Cut - both areas with heavy boat traffic - as examples of the unsafe behavior.

The law only applies to waters within the 150-foot-wide ship canal - not to the vast majority of Lake Union. "Swimming off houseboats in Lake Union is still legal," Whitman said.

But the law also institutes new rules requiring swimmers anywhere in the city to be within 50 feet of the houseboat, dock, shore, or vessel from which they are swimming.

Also, any floating devices such as air mattresses and inflatable rafts that are more than 50 feet from shore will be considered "vessels" under the new law, and will be required to meet the same life-jacket requirements as boats: Children under 12 must wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket and people over 12 must have one with them.

Seattle Harbor Patrol Lt. Dick Schweitzer said his department will focus at first on educating violators about the requirements of the new law but that citations and fines are a possibility.

Eli Sanders' phone message number is 206-748-5815. His e-mail address is esanders@seattletimes.com.