Lakehaven Utility District

Welcome to the New Year! This is my first newsletter article since being appointed Commissioner last May and being elected to serve last November as well.

As a resident of the greater Federal Way area for over fifty years, I have seen the area change significantly. Fifty years ago, we were a small collection of bedroom communities served by several special purpose utility districts and a large number of septic tanks and private well systems. Today, those districts have been combined into the Lakehaven Utility District, which serves almost all of Federal Way and parts of six other cities. Lakehaven also serves areas of unincorporated King County just east of Federal Way.

As a boy, my dad and I walked our neighborhood and gathered signatures to petition the “District” to extend water service to around 50 houses just a little south and east of Star Lake. We were successful and joined King County Water District 124 in the early 1960s. Back then we actually dug our own ditches by hand from the street to the house in order to lay our water service pipe.

After joining the Lakehaven team last spring, I quickly learned the “District” is run by a family of about 100 employees. The team is talented, dedicated and goes the extra mile for the ratepayer. Each and everyone at Lakehaven take pride in doing a great job!

Prior to coming on board, I asked our District manager Don Perry to show me around the District’s service area so I could learn more about water and sewer operations and see all the facilities. I was very impressed to see how efficiently our equipment, facilities, and staff function as we visited the various departments.

We have an engineering team that guides new development and works with other municipal and county agencies to plan and design new infrastructure projects that sustain and expand our existing systems. Then there is the water and field operations center. These are the folks you see around town in the big and small trucks, operating backhoes and various other pieces of equipment. They read your meters, keep our water mains flushed and clean, and maintain our wastewater pipes and pump stations. Our wastewater operations treat nearly 10 million gallons a day. We have an award winning operation that ensures treated water is cleanly discharged into Puget Sound in a manner that is virtually environmentally neutral. I was impressed that by sending treated bio-solids to eastern Washington for organic farming purposes, we are contributing to being a “Green” neighbor.

I was introduced to OASIS. OASIS is a project that will literally recharge aquifers in wet months to store water so it can be used months or even years later. Please see the “OASIS Project Update” article in this newsletter. This is another example of a “Green” activity in which we are using technology to be both efficient and conservation minded.

Lastly I am impressed by our emergency preparedness plans that will keep water and sewer flowing in the event of an interruption of power. Our staff members even volunteer to be part of a disaster / recovery team in order to serve our community in the event we need them!

On December 9, 2009 the Lakehaven team held its very first Employee Rewards Luncheon. In addition to recognizing employees for their years of service, employees and commissioners participated in preparing gift baskets to be auctioned at the luncheon. The proceeds will go to the CAP fund to help those in need in our area pay their water and sewer bills.
We rate payers are truly in very good hands!

The District was saddened by the passing of former Commissioner Robert A. “Bob” Piquette in early December. Elected to the Lakehaven Sewer District Board of Commissioners, Bob served the ratepayers from 1984 through the end of 1989. During his term, he was instrumental in the merger of the former King County Water District No. 124 into the Lakehaven Sewer District. Later during Bob’s term, the Board pursued the merger of King County Water District No. 56 into the newly consolidated Federal Way Water and Sewer District. In addition to his efforts to secure the District’s participation in the Second Supply Water Pipeline Project, Bob played a significant role in the development of the project that upgraded the Lakota Wastewater Treatment Plant to secondary treatment, the largest public works project ever undertaken by the District.

Bob will be remembered as a caring, enthusiastic and thoughtful representative of the utility and its customers. He remained an avid supporter of the District following his departure from the Board and will be missed greatly by his family at the District.

n 2009 the District completed a 3^rd year of Phase I development of an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project titled “OASIS” which stands for Optimization of Aquifer Storage for Increased Supply.

The OASIS Project is proposed to be staged in two 6-year pilot phases and six 6-year operational phases and involves developing the local Mirror Lake Aquifer (named because its locality is centered roughly 300 to 500 feet beneath Mirror Lake) into a very large rechargeable underground storage reservoir. The concept of ASR involves storing (injecting) as much available excess water underground during wet months when it is most plentiful and recovering (pumping) this high quality water for customer use during drier months or at other times when it is most needed. Previous hydrogeologic evaluation of the Mirror Lake Aquifer shows it has the storage capacity of nearly 9.5 billion gallons of water.

During 2009, the District completed mineralogical evaluations and initial hydrologic testing of our first ASR well (Well 32 near French Lake Park & Lakehaven Center). Although this well is not yet ready for operation, tests show a potential flow rate of 3,000 gallons per minute or higher in both water production and injection functions. Also completed were the drilling and construction of two observation wells that will be used to monitor and evaluate vertical water movement (or leakage) above and below the Mirror Lake Aquifer and to evaluate groundwater levels responding to stresses caused by pumping and water injection. The District also completed the drilling and construction of a network of three shallow monitor wells dedicated as observation points near local upland springs, seeps and wetlands to monitor the response of aquifer storage and recovery on these natural facilities. Lakehaven will continue to report progress on this project over the next few years as several more wells are scheduled to be drilled and constructed to further define the geologic/hydrogeologic conditions of the Mirror Lake Aquifer.

District employees Christie House and Kathy Brown display baskets that they created to be auctioned in support of the Customer Assistance Program. The employees raised over $1,100 for families needing help to pay their water and sewer bills. The Customer Assistance Program is administered by the Multi-Service Center.

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: