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Beaux Arts Village to file adjunct response after Bellevue punctured emergency water intertie
Summary
Councilmembers said Bellevue punctured the town’s intertie service line this spring, leaving residents temporarily without water and revealing no backflow device was installed; the council directed staff to draft an adjunct response to the Washington State Department of Health noting inconsistencies in Bellevue’s report.
Mayor Aletha Howes and Councilmember Tom Stowe told the council the town’s emergency intertie with Bellevue was punctured in May, an event that rapidly drained Beaux Arts Village’s water tank and left several residents without water service. Town staff discovered that a backflow-prevention device was not installed on the connection when it was created.
Bellevue Water Utility filed an incident report with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). Councilmember Tom Stowe told colleagues that Bellevue’s description in that report differs in some respects from Stowe’s own observations of the May event. The council directed Clerk/Treasurer Sue Ann Spens to prepare an adjunct response to DOH that calls out those inconsistencies; Mayor Howes and Stowe will review the draft before submission.
Councilmembers also discussed next steps for a formal agreement governing the intertie. Councilmember Stowe said he is working with Town Engineer Stacia Schroeder and Water Department Supervisors Bob Durr and Eric Antonelli to establish the intertie’s history and to determine how best to require installation of a backflow-prevention device going forward. The council did not adopt a final agreement at the meeting.
The council’s direction was procedural: staff will draft a focused adjunct response to the DOH report and return to council with the proposed text. No new ordinance or contract was approved at this meeting.
