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City staff say Bellevue water system ‘generally healthy,’ recommend Maidenbauer reservoir and targeted upgrades
Summary
City staff told the Environmental Services Commission the draft 20‑year Water System Plan finds the system largely sound but flags storage and localized pressure shortfalls; Maidenbauer South (adds ~6 million gallons, completion 2031) and targeted pipe work were presented as key fixes, with public engagement to follow.
Bellevue staff told the Environmental Services Commission on May 7 that the city’s water system is "doing well overall," while recommending a handful of targeted capital projects and continued resiliency planning to meet 20‑year demand.
Senior planning engineer Jim Greber summarized the draft Water System Plan and the system analysis, saying the city’s regional wholesale supply and distribution network provide adequate source capacity today, and the system’s 24 reservoirs hold about 42,000,000 gallons. He highlighted the Maidenbauer South reservoir project—planned to add roughly 6,000,000 gallons of storage with construction scheduled for completion in 2031—as a central element for addressing long‑term storage needs.
The plan breaks system evaluation into four criteria—water supply, storage, fire flow and minimum system pressure—and flags geographic areas for attention. Staff showed maps indicating that the West Storage Region (including Downtown, Bel‑Red and Wilburton) is projected to require additional capacity and that a pressure deficit near the border of Crossroads and Northeast Bellevue could approach the minimum 30 psi threshold by 2046 if growth trends materialize as forecasted. On fire protection, the city’s policy target of 1,000 gallons per minute at hydrants meets or exceeds state requirements, though staff said some hydrants remain below target and continuing water‑main replacement work should address most deficiencies.
Staff emphasized the plan’s policy framing—managerial, technical and financial—and said the current update does not add new policies but aligns existing utility policies (including UT1, UT7, UT10 and UT12) with the draft system analysis. Staff noted reliance on regional partners: Cascade Water Alliance and Seattle Public Utilities supply wholesale water, and the plan will be coordinated with regulators including King County and the state Department of Health.
On resilience, staff cited the city’s Emergency Water Supply Master Plan (adopted by City Council in 2023) and recommended continued work to implement backbone piping, emergency groundwater supplies and replacement of at‑risk materials (for example, asbestos‑cement pipe) to improve seismic and emergency resiliency.
Commissioners asked about climate change and drought planning for regional suppliers; staff said those conversations are primarily led by the regional providers but that Bellevue participates and will press for climate‑aware planning. Staff also described a dynamic system model used to test scenarios and said hydrant flow testing is essential to keep the model calibrated.
Next steps in the process include agency and neighboring city review this summer, community outreach (a virtual open house and other meetings), addressing regulator comments, and a return to the commission later this year with a recommendation to City Council. Following council adoption, the plan will proceed to required approvals by King County and the Department of Health.
The presentation was informational and no commission recommendation or vote on the draft plan was requested at the May 7 meeting.
