Commissioner's
Corner
Dick
Mayer
 I
trust that you were able to
stay reasonably dry during the wet winter months and emerged with at
least some of your sense of humor intact. Looking on the positive side;
if the law of averages really works, we should have a great summer this
year!
I want to take this opportunity to
welcome a new group of sewer customers to the District. The District
recently completed a project that will bring sewer service to the Lakota
Beach neighborhood. While the installation of utility improvements to
bring sewer service to a new area of the District is fairly commonplace,
the project that led to the installation of sewers in this neighborhood
is unique and its evolution is a story worth telling.
As many of you know, the Lakota Beach
neighborhood lies just north of the Lakota Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Several years ago, a group of Lakota Beach residents, interested in
obtaining sewer service, contacted the District to learn about the
options for connecting their neighborhood to the sanitary sewer system.
With the preliminary information we were able to provide them at the
time, these individuals proceeded to survey the neighborhood to gather
information on the support for sewer service. Although the support
certainly was not unanimous, the level of interest was sufficiently high
to suggest that a project was possible. In light of this preliminary
sign of interest, the District undertook additional study to develop a
more complete plan for bringing sewers to Lakota Beach.
Although the neighborhood is very close
to the plant, it lies at an elevation below the level where sewage
enters the treatment plant. Consequently, gravity service was not a
possibility. The standard approach to deal with this type of situation
would have been to locate a pump station at the low point in the local
area. Such a facility would then gather flows from the neighborhood
collection system and pump the sewage up to the plant for treatment. The
problem in this case was that the low area in the Lakota Beach
neighborhood is the beachfront, and environmental regulations make it
very difficult to locate sewer infrastructure in tidelands.
The best answer to this dilemma of
topography appeared to be a low-pressure sewer system. A low-pressure
system utilizes shallow, pressurized sewer mains that collect sewage
flows from the small grinder pumps that serve each lot. One of the great
benefits of these systems is the lower cost of installation of the local
collection facilities. This results in lower connection charges to the
property owners. The shallow lines can be installed by “trenchless”
construction methods that, unlike the methods used to install deeper
gravity lines, do not require road cutting. Additionally, much of the
surface disturbance to landscaping and other improvements that comes
from deep trenching can be avoided. The cost savings are offset, to some
degree, by the additional cost to the homeowner of installing and
maintaining the grinder pump, however, in total, the cost of these
systems can compare favorably to the cost of gravity sewers.
It is never easy to steward a project
like this from start to finish. The perseverance of the Lakota neighbors
was impressive and contributed mightily to the ultimate success of the
project. Our staff put in a tremendous amount of time to make this
project a reality and their efforts should be commended as well.
A number of other areas are currently
investigating sewer service through the use of low-pressure systems. As
our budget allows, we will do whatever we can to help make sewer service
available to those wishing to connect to the system. If you are
interested in sewer service, don’t hesitate to contact the District’s
Development Services Section at telephone numbers (253) 945-1580 or
(253) 945-1581.
Thanks for your interest in the
District.
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WATER FESTIVAL
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Water Festival for 4th and 5th Grade Students
held at Highline Community College each Year
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The 7th annual regional Water Festival was scheduled to
be held at Highline Community College on March 21st & 22nd with Governor
Christine Gregoire as the Guest Speaker.
The Water Festival is an educational
fun-filled event (One class is entitled “As the Faucet Turns”) held to teach
students about water quality and related natural resources. Last year, 250
students from the Federal Way School District attended the event. Lakehaven
Utility District paid a total of $2,500 for their registration fees as a
means of teaching water conservation.
Over 1,600 students from 5 school
districts benefit from the program. Students rotate through a number of
educational activities to learn how to protect natural resources and use
them wisely. They learn how water affects their environment, about wellhead
protection, wetlands, and a community water distribution system.
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT
RAINS?
On average, about 36 inches of rain falls from the sky over
the Federal Way upland area each year. One-tenth of an inch of rain over the
roughly 34-square miles of Lakehaven’s service area is about 60 million
gallons of water. As we all know, the rain may drizzle down in trace amounts
over long periods or it might come down in buckets as it did this last
January when over 12 inches of rain drenched our community. So what happened
to the 7.2 billion gallons of water that we saw in January? Did it simply
run away from us or are our groundwater supplies over flowing? Quantifying
where it all went is not a simple matter. It takes only days to convey most
of the rainfall away from us through the stream channels and drainage
courses developed in the area, but multiple years to significantly change
the groundwater tables in the aquifers that supply us with drinking water.
During heavy rains, most water is lost to runoff. It is the long periods of
light rain that tend to keep the soils saturated which in turn helps drive
the water vertically to the groundwater tables. This has historically meant
that we can recover on average 9 to 12 million gallons per day from our
local groundwater sources all year no matter how much it has rained in the
past. In general terms this means that our groundwater sources rely on about
15% to 20% of the average annual rainfall total, not individual month
totals. The balance of the annual rainfall supports our local springs,
streams and vegetation, or simply runs off or evaporates back to the
atmosphere. From a water supply stand point we dislike the downpours just as
much as the next person, but we do enjoy the Northwest drizzle.
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WELL 29 PROJECT
The Well 29 Project is nearing completion
and with start-up scheduled for spring of 2006 will provide Lakehaven
Utility District with another source of high quality drinking water. This
well was drilled in 1996 but was not put into service at that time because
of issues related to obtaining a state approved water rights permit and
water quality issues which have since been resolved. Well 29 is located on
the east side of Lakehaven Utility District's distribution system and is
designed to pump water from the Eastern Upland Aquifer system.
The well will also be an important source
of water for emergency situations and especially during an event that may
cause a disruption of normal water service on the east side of our water
system. Water quality data from Well 29 shows the natural chemistry of the
groundwater from this well meets all federal and state primary drinking
water standards. However, the groundwater exceeds some secondary standards
that are considered esthetic issues but not a health concern. A natural
dissolved mineral in the water called manganese and a small detection of
hydrogen sulfide odor are the only secondary standards that are of issue
with water quality for this well and these natural inorganics will be
removed before the water enters the distribution system by a new water
treatment filtration facility constructed at the well site.
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KIDS CORNER
Washington is earthquake country. When the ground starts to
shake, “Drop, Cover, and Hold”. If you feel an earthquake, drop and
cover under a desk or sturdy table. Stay away from windows and objects that
could fall. Hold onto the desk or table. If it moves, move with it.
Do not run – stay where you are and “Drop, Cover, and Hold”.
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TIPS TO SAVE & CONSERVE WATER
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When washing dishes
by hand, don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with
wash water and the other with rinse water.
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Enrich soils with 3-4 inches of compost worked
into the top foot of soil prior to planting.
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Your Board of
Commissioners
Beverly J. Tweddle - President
Don Miller -
Vice President
Tom Jovanovich -
Secretary
Dick Mayer - 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:
Lakehaven Center
31531 First Ave. S.
Federal Way at 6 p.m. |
