Before Bonney Lake City Council members could act on a resolution aimed at getting leaky water mains replaced, one councilman urged more data is need before city funds are spent.
During the council’s Jan. 12 meeting, Deputy Mayor Dan Swatman asked Community Development Committee members what data they reviewed before determining the water mains were leaking.
“As part of the ongoing cost and controls, I’m going to be looking very closely at things,” Swatman said. “I’m going to have a hard time simply supporting something as I did with the sewer replacement…staff is not supplying all the information to convince me that we need to be doing this now.”
Councilman James Rackley, CDC chair, said he had no reason to question the data the committee received and that it was the fifth year the city has worked on fixing leaks.
City Engineer John Woodcock said the Public Works Department hires a contractor each year to find water mains that are leaking.
Woodcock said much of the work replaces steel water lines that are 50 or 60 years old. He said city maintenance workers have to dig the lines up and patch them.
“We have people going out doing the testing, we have records from our maintenance department on what lines are creating the biggest problems,” Woodcock said. “They’re out there maintaining the line and fixing the leaks on a monthly basis.”
Woodcook said the city is spending a lot of money digging up roads and repairing leaky water mains.
Swatman said he wants to see the data behind the project before spending millions of dollars.
City Administrator Don Morrison said the city is near the end of a program to replace leaky water mains. He said the program was paid for with money from Public Works Trust Fund loans.
The city has replaced approximately 49,400 feet of leaky water mains thus far, using PWTF loans.
“My main point is to keep harping on committee and councilmembers to make sure they have data to back them up,” Swatman said. “There is no way to prove – to me as a taxpayer – it needs to be done. As a taxpayer I would hope that the committee and council keeps an eye on every single dollar that we spend.”
