2006 Water Comprehensive Plan - City of Bellevue

While the CCR provides an annual “state-of-the-water” report, the Public Notification Rule(PNR) directs utilities in notifying customers of acute violations when they occur. The PNR wasrevised in May 2000 and outlines public notification requirements for violations of MCLs,treatment techniques, testing procedures, monitoring requirements, and violations of a varianceor exemption. If violations have the potential for “serious adverse effect,” consumers and theState must be notified within 24 hours of the violation. The notice must explain the violation,potential health effects, corrective actions, and whether consumers need to use an alternate watersource. Notice must be made by appropriate media or posted door-to-door. Less seriousviolations must be reported to consumers within 30 days, in an annual report, or by mail or directdelivery service within one year depending on the severity of the violation.Bellevue StatusBellevue is in compliance with the CCR Rule. Annual CCRs have been published as required byJuly 1 and provided to all customers via direct mail, the City’s website, and the City’s newsletter.No acute violations have occurred since the promulgation of these rules and therefore the PNRhas not been implemented.CUSTOMER CONCERNSAll water quality customer complaints Bellevue receives are routed directly to Water Qualitystaff. Complaints are recorded, and when the cause of the complaint is known, suggestions areprovided to the customer over the phone. If there is any question as to the cause of thecomplaint, appropriate action is taken and a Water Quality technician is immediately dispatchedto the home. Samples are taken if needed. Samples are analyzed by a certified laboratory for theappropriate parameters of concern.Review of customer complaint data provided between 1998 and 2004 indicates that Bellevuereceived less than 130 complaints per year during this time, resulting in approximately onecomplaint per thousand customers per year. The vast majority of these were associated withclarity of the water, caused by construction or main breaks occurring nearby. Taste and odorwere the second and third most common complaints. Bellevue maintains data on all customercomplaints in the drinking water quality database.LABORATORY CERTIFICATIONSBellevue uses three State-certified laboratories to perform water quality testing. The contactinformation is listed below:Washington State Department of Health – Public Health Laboratories1610 NE 150 th StreetShoreline WA 98155-9701206-418-540010-9