Praise pours on the water man

Ever turn on a faucet to get a drink of water?

Then you're familiar with the work of Joe Mickelson.

Ever wonder who stops a sinkhole from swallowing us whole?

That, too, would be Mickelson, 52, whose hand controls the spigot for all of Seattle.

We've spent the last several months listening to political candidates point out all they think is wrong with this city.

The lackluster response to last year's snowstorm. The billions being spent on a waterfront tunnel. Traffic. Overdevelopment. Name your poison; it appeared in a campaign leaflet somewhere.

But the campaign rhetoric shouldn't drown out the steady accomplishments of city workers like Mickelson, who retired last week after 30 years, the last six as its director of water operations.

"Joe and his staff are the ones who make the water run," said Nick Pealy, Seattle Public Utilities' deputy director of field operations, and Mickelson's boss.

And Mickelson was always there when the water runneth over.

He was front and center in April 2007, when a contractor hit a water main, sending 1.5 million gallons of water across busy Dexter Avenue North.

A month later, Mickelson managed the mess left when a 90-year-old cast-iron main ruptured under the University Bridge, creating a sinkhole that swallowed two cars.

"When I got there, the mayor was there, and I knew it was going to be a high-profile event," Mickelson said. "We had two water mains in the same trench and didn't know which one to turn off. Then we had the two cars in the hole."

Despite those episodes, Seattle has one of the lowest water-main-leak rates in the world, according to Seattle Public Utilities spokesman Andy Ryan.

People come from all over to learn about how to run a water infrastructure — and to talk to Mickelson.

"It's multiple people," Mickelson said of directing a city of downspouts.

"Not just me."

Maybe. But those "multiple people" learned much of what they know from him.

Mickelson started with the Seattle Water Department in 1980 as something called a "water pipe helper."

He came up through the ranks, never missing a day of work in 30 years.

He headed a staff of 230 in the water-operations division — bigger than all but five city departments.

He did his job so well that the city is now splitting his division into two: distribution and transmission, and maintenance.

Each will have its own Joe Mickelson.

"I suspect he's one of less than a handful of city people who have gone from the ditch to being a director of a division," said Pealy. He also keeps the staff in running condition.

Mickelson, who is 6-foot-3 and 275 pounds, is an accomplished power lifter who has coached other city workers about fitness.

But here's what you should really know about him: He gives a lot of credit to his wife, Cathy, for taking care of their two kids while he worked crazy hours, out there in the elements.

He calls overtime "blood money" because it cost him time away from his family.

And he's a second-generation city employee. His father worked for the Seattle Department of Transportation for 42 years.

Mickelson left himself no time to dry out. He just started a new job as an operations manager with the Cascade Water Alliance.

"But I'll be around if they need me in Seattle," he said.

Come hell or high water. That's nice to know.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

The candyman couldn't.