Lakehaven Utility District

As many of you know, Federal Way residents are celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the City’s incorporation this year. I want to extend my congratulations to the City on reaching this milestone!

The marking of the City’s anniversary reminds me that I just passed my 60th year living at Five Mile Lake. Looking back, I realize how much of my life has been shaped by this community. My experiences in the area began in the early 1930’s, when I first began taking the train from Bozeman, Montana to visit my grandparents in Tacoma. They had bought a lot on Five Mile Lake in 1929 as a place for their grandchildren to enjoy on summer vacations. I remember seeing the huge trees on the property and recall my grandfather speaking proudly of the fact that he could call those trees his own.

Influenced by the natural beauty of the area, I knew this would be a wonderful place to live. After serving in World War II and finishing college in ’49, I moved to the area and, like my grandfather and father, took a job with the Milwaukee Railroad. My wife and I built a home on my grandparents’ property at Five Mile Lake, next to the home built by my twin brother, who had moved here a few years earlier. The two of us and our wives raised our children together at Five Mile Lake.

Five Mile Lake was a wonderful place to live. There was a resort on the site of the current King County Park where you could buy pop for a nickel a bottle. On the north end of the Lake was another community gathering spot, the Glen-Don Resort, which included a dance hall. On summer nights, we could hear the music all the way to our house. The area was largely rural back then and, other than a small store near Surprise Lake, there was no place to buy groceries in the vicinity. In fact we had to go all the way to Puyallup to do our grocery shopping.

There wasn’t much development anywhere in the Federal Way area when I first arrived. Originally, Federal Way was just a couple of stops on the route between Seattle and Tacoma. When Highway 99 was built with federal dollars, it was referred to as the “Federal Way” to Seattle. Many have debated the source of the name “Federal Way”, but this is the origin of the name as I remember.

The first water service we had was provided by the Brook Lake Water Cooperative, which took water directly from Brook Lake and piped it to homes and businesses in the vicinity. Gradually water and sewer service was brought to larger portions of the community and the transformation of the area into a thriving hub for residential and business development followed. Of course much has changed about the water and sewer service since then and utility operations have developed to a level of sophistication that would never have seemed possible, or necessary, then. In truth, the basic components are still the same; there is just a little more going on between the water source, your tap and the treatment plant.

The Lakehaven family was saddened by the passing of former Commissioner Beverly Tweddle in December.

Bev was first elected to the Board of Commissioners in 1988 and served until health problems forced her to retire in 2009. A native of Spokane, Bev worked in public service her entire career. She began her career as a city administrator and later moved to a job with the Pierce County Wastewater Utility. Following her work at Pierce County, Bev served as an executive aide to Washington Governor Booth Gardiner in Olympia. She later served on the Metro Council before that agency merged with King County. She concluded her professional career as human resources specialist with King County.

Bev was a compassionate and caring public servant and a zealous supporter of the ratepayer. She demonstrated her concern for customers of the District struggling to pay their water and sewer bills by donating personal funds to launch the District’s Customer Assistance Program. She was an enthusiastic gardener and was instrumental in the creation of the District’s Water Conservation Garden. As a tribute to Bev and her interest in the Water Conservation Garden, the Board voted in January to officially name the garden the “Beverly J. Tweddle Water Conservation Garden”. The formal dedication will occur in June at the award ceremony for the Water Conservation Poster Contest.

Lakehaven’s Green River water supply is scheduled for additional treatment to meet more stringent drinking water standards for surface water.

The City of Tacoma, Kent, Covington Water District, and Lakehaven are studying options to protect our Green River drinking water supply from cryptosporidium, a protozoan that can cause gastrological problems and illness. While this has not been a problem in the Green River watershed, federal health standards require surface water supplies to install protective measures. The big decision is - How?

The least expensive option is to simply destroy and inactivate potential cryptosporidium using Ultraviolet Light (UV). The second and more expensive option is direct filtration to remove the protozoan. This second option provides a host of other benefits that would improve reliability, color, and taste issues while also removing turbidity and potential algae.

A UV treatment plant is estimated to cost $105 million, compared to a filtration plant at $217 million. Lakehaven’s share of the project is expected to be 11% of the total cost for either option. At this point Lakehaven favors the filtration option, but is working with its partners in the final decision.

Howard Hanson Dam

The District received a clean report for the recently completed audit of year 2008. The audit, performed annually by the Washington State Auditor’s Office, examines the District’s financial statements and its compliance with legal regulations and internal policies. The current report continues the District’s long record of having no audit findings.

KIDS’ CORNER

APRIL IS EARTHQUAKE MONTH!
DROP, COVER AND HOLD

If you are indoors during an earthquake, take cover under a heavy table or desk, cover your head, and hold on. Stay away from windows or anything heavy.

If you are outdoors, move away from buildings, street lights, and wires.

REMEMBER: “STAY CALM”!

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Don Miller - President
Ron Nowicki - Vice President
Len Englund - Secretary
Chuck Gibson - Commissioner
Ed Stewart - Commissioner

Regular Board of Commissioners meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month.
These meetings are held at the Lakehaven Center at: