Snoqualmie committee advances draft BESS safety ordinance after hours of public comment

Snoqualmie — The city’s Public Safety Committee advanced a draft ordinance intended to mitigate risks from industrial battery energy storage systems (BESS), voting unanimously July 6 to forward the measure to the full council for a first reading after more than an hour of public comment.

The committee’s chair, Rob Whatton, said the draft ordinance was presented at the meeting and would be publicly posted for review. "This is the first time this committee is taking this underway," Whatton said, noting the document could be amended before final action by the council.

Why it matters: Residents pressed the committee for firm safety rules, independent testing and financial assurances to ensure companies pay for removal and remediation if systems fail, and they urged setbacks from homes and schools and concrete evacuation plans for the Snoqualmie Valley.

During the public-comment period, speakers made a sequence of technical and policy requests. A Snoqualmie resident who identified herself only as Nivedita asked that "entities that profit from these facilities should be required to stand behind them throughout their entire life cycle," proposing bankruptcy safeguards, insurance requirements, maintenance obligations and decommissioning plans. Henrika Stitch urged a two-mile setback from schools and day-care facilities, saying published research shows burning lithium batteries can release hydrogen fluoride and other toxins.

Multiple residents asked for tiered limits based on capacity. Jim Chesfold urged a residential ceiling around 100 kilowatt-hours and a second tier between 100 kilowatt-hours and 1 megawatt-hour, with utility-scale rules applying above 1 megawatt-hour. "Please consider setting 100 kilowatt hours as the limit for personal or residential use," Chesfold said.

Speakers also pushed for independent verification and monitoring. Jessica Moylan urged that "no entity profiting from proposed projects should be given the benefit of the doubt about public safety" and recommended company-funded independent government scientists to test facilities and publish results. Joe Hannon recommended that permit applications include NFPA 855 and UL 9540A test reports and a hazard-mitigation analysis stamped by a licensed professional engineer.

Environmental and evacuation concerns were recurring themes. Heidi Stauber cited peer-reviewed research finding fluoride and metals in runoff from battery fires and asked that any large BESS require engineered secondary containment and treatment sized to capture the full volume of firefighting water. Several commenters, including Butch Vision and Melody Correa (PTSA president at Cascade View Elementary), warned that the Snoqualmie Valley’s limited roads and flood-prone bridges could impede evacuation and that many local schools lack sealed filtration to make shelter-in-place effective.

Speakers also criticized existing county rules. John Schroeder and others said King County’s $1 million liability cap (as described by a commenter) is inadequate to cover large-scale failures and asked the city to use its ordinance as leverage when county rules are discussed.

The committee discussed procedural options after public comment. Members agreed the draft is primarily written for industrial-scale BESS and should avoid unduly burdening residential home systems such as Powerwalls. They also discussed speeding the measure to full council, using the ordinance in annexation discussions and returning amendments for a second reading. Chair Whatton said the mayor reviewed the draft and was supportive with tweaks.

Formal action: "By unanimous vote, we have adopted the ordinance for its 1st reading," Chair Whatton announced. The committee recorded the action as a first reading to be forwarded to the council; committee members noted the draft could be amended and that additional community input would continue.

What’s next: The ordinance will move to the council as a first-reading item; committee members said they expect to return to refine language and incorporate technical requirements such as evacuation verification, noise limits, tiered capacity thresholds, independent testing, financial-assurance mechanisms and water-runoff containment before a final vote.

Attribution note: Quotations and claims in this article are attributed to speakers who identified themselves during the July 6 public comment period or to committee members speaking on the record at the meeting.