Massive Seattle waterslide canceled

The massive waterslide slated for Seattle’s Mercer Street has been canceled due to conflicts between the organizer and the health department.

The waterslide was scheduled to take over the major arterial on Aug. 16, but according to Slide the City, the company that organizes the slide event, permits have stalled the process.

“Slide the City will hit the streets of Seattle, Spokane and Tri Cities next summer,” the company said in a statement. “Despite months of hard work and coordination between event organizers and city officials, the state and King County Health Departments reported that they could not accommodate the event this year due to increased permit requests. Slide the City has successfully held events in over thirty states and in multiple countries around the world. They are excited to continue working with the health department to bring fun in the sun next summer.”

The company also promised a “bigger, better and wetter slide in 2016.”

The local permits in question would be from the Health Department for Seattle and King County. However, according to James Apa with the department, there was no permit application filed in the first place.

“A permit application is required in the state to conduct this type of event,” said Hillary Karasz, also with the county health department. “We have not had a complete application from the operators of Slide the City despite being in contact with them since December.”

Karasz said that the department told the slide company what would and wouldn’t work according to code. She said they told Slide the City that it could go to the state’s department of health to get a variance for the one-time, unique event.

“It sounds like that it won’t meet the code, in which case you need to go to the state department of health, and they can permit special exceptions or variances to the code,” Karasz recalled of what the department told Slide the City. “But we don’t know what they are going to do until they give us an application.”

“We have been in contact with them, and we have tried to work with them so they can do their event because we do support events like this,” she said. “We want to have a full range of water activities for residents.”

The giant 1,000-foot slip and slide takes over an entire street, sending people down a slippery slope. The Utah-based company, Slide the City, organizes various events in different towns across the country. In addition to a slide, music and vendors are also part of the festivities. It had planned slides in Seattle, Spokane and the Tri-Cities but all have been canceled, citing the state health department’s reluctance as a cause.