A child’s tennis shoe. Old tires. A diamond bracelet. Those are just some of the things that have been found on the floor of the Ballard Locks. We were there today for an amazing tour that only happens once a year as crews do their annual maintenance while the locks are de-watered.

Dru Butterfield from the US Army Corps of Engineers led today’s tour which included staff members from the offices of Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell. The most interesting part of the tour took us through the tunnel system that runs the length of the locks. In the video below, Butterfield tells us how the tunnels, or filling conduits, work.

After draining the large locks each year, workers scrape barnacles off the walls and make sure all of the mechanical systems are in good shape. Getting rid of the barnacles is also incredibly important to the young salmon passing through the locks. Those barnacles have been known to de-scale the fish.

In the video below, Butterfield shows us how the water level in the locks is raised.

The tour ended at the bottom of the gate that opens to Puget Sound, where a colorful collection of aquatic life has set up shop.

This part of the locks is also designed to dissipate the energy of the water as it rushes through the tunnels. As Butterfield explains below, the water from one tunnel meets the water from the other tunnel to stage a dramatic water “fight.”

Our sister site, My Ballard, has a photograph of what appears to be a small gray whale just to the west of the Ballard Locks.  A reader saw it around noon on Wednesday, and sent in this photo. He said it was there for about 20 minutes and then disappeared. 

No one at the Army Corps or Shilshole Marina had seen or heard about a whale in the area but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.  A gray whale was seen near the Locks several years ago.

Each year the Corps of Engineers “dewaters” the Ballard Locks, which is the official term for letting the water out to scrape barnacles off the walls and make sure all the mechanical systems are working properly. 

This morning our sister site myballard had the opportunity to climb 55 feet down the scaffolding to the bottom of the large Lock and see the structure from a rare point of view.

 Here are the volunteers who are busy scraping barnacles off the walls. We are appreciative that myballard took on this assignment for us because they report the sound of the scraping is deafening and the smell is eye-watering.  Click here for the entire story.