Tumwater updates council on water, stormwater and wastewater projects and capacity planning

Tumwater water resources staff told the City Council on April 1 that the city is investing in meters, monitoring and infrastructure to protect supplies and comply with environmental rules while planning for roughly 2% annual growth in customer connections.

The presentation by Dan Smith, a water-resources staff member, summarized operations and capital work across drinking water, stormwater and wastewater utilities; noted recent grant and water-right acquisitions; and outlined next-step projects including the Southeast reservoir and the brewery well-field project. Smith said the city produced more than 1 billion gallons of drinking water last year — about 2.8 million gallons per day on average, with a single-day high near 5.7 million gallons — delivered through about 87 miles of pipe.

The update detailed completed and planned projects and staff initiatives intended to improve supply reliability, reduce leakage and increase monitoring. Smith said the city installed advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) citywide, completed physical and virtual security upgrades at utility facilities, and secured additional water rights to extend the city’s supply portfolio. He also described a corrosion-control review and a lead-service-line assessment that confirmed the city’s reduced monitoring approach and found no lead service lines in the system for Department of Health purposes.

Smith told the council…