Warden to halt water shutoffs in August

WARDEN – Warden City Council passed a unanimous motion during Tuesday’s meeting to not shut off any water utility services during August to avoid conflicting with new Washington state law.

“The legislature passed a bill this session that prohibits any water utility from terminating water service during an excessive heat warning, a heat advisory, an excessive heat watch or similar alert,” said Warden City Attorney Anna Franz.

According to a news release from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, the bill passed through the Senate on April 10 and goes into effect July 23. The legislation does not release citizens from having to pay their utility bills.

“If somebody hasn’t paid their water bill and the city doesn’t turn off their water during the summer, that account would be sent to collections, and then, in the fall, the city would be able to terminate that water service and require full payment before it gets turned back on,” said Franz.

Franz and City Administrator Kriss Shuler outlined two options for the council to deliberate on, the first of which was to stop all water shutoffs in August. The second was to create specific rules for water shutoffs during the summer months, which Franz then elaborated on.

“The city will just need to establish policies that state basically on the day for your normal shutoffs for delinquency when they haven’t paid, it can’t be one of those excessive heat warning events,” said Franz. “And if it’s not and you turn it off, the customer needs to be notified that if one of those events does occur, they can come into the city and request that their water be turned back on.”

Additionally, Franz also said that the legislation itself lacked clarity and guidance and that there were still questions regarding the new regulations.

“At this point it might just be easier to not do terminations and see how it goes, and let the larger cities kind of develop policies and practices that the city can then adopt if it wants to move forward with terminations during the summer months,” said Franz.

The city’s main concern is August because the bill doesn’t go into effect until July 23 and the months after August generally don’t have periods of excessive heat, Shuler said. Subsequently, the motion, specific to preventing water shutoffs this August, passed with no objections.

In addition to the water shutoff agenda item, Schuler also informed the council that the city of Warden had been awarded a grant of $89,650 to create an updated Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan. Shuler said that the last time Warden had updated the plan was 1995 and that the plan would take public input in the future to determine what improvements and additions to make to the city’s Parks and Recreation trails and facilities.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android today.