PSE’s Planned “Blackouts” in Wildfire Season Will Shut Off Our Water
By Jenny Bell
Have you heard? Our utility company, Puget Sound Energy, is planning community-wide “PSPS” (Public Safety Power Shutoffs) or “blackouts” that PSE will use on Island “During high-risk wildfire conditions … shutting off power lines to help prevent wildfires from starting.”
These outages may last several days. PSE advises residents to mark their accounts for vital electrical medical equipment but “Life support status” is no guarantee of delivery/restoration priority. Our water supply is mostly electrically driven.
Undergrounding power lines almost eliminates wildfire risk. According to Pacific Gas & Electric in California, there is a “99% reduction in ignition risk at locations with lines undergrounded, [making it] one of the most effective ways to reduce wildfire risk at the lowest long-term cost to customers.” I expect a power company that filed for bankruptcy protection after its aging equipment was blamed for series of fires would have great focus on costs, safety, and reliability.
Undergrounding came to my attention recently when PSE started easement acquisition/eminent domain actions on my street, and I started researching. A KC/PSE 2019 Franchise Agreement requires PSE to plan to move all power poles and apparently clear all trees within 10 feet of the edge of the road, a safety measure to avoid off-road vehicle collisions with immovable objects.
KC says PSE has a choice to meet its “clear zone” requirements by easement acquisition, undergrounding lines, or asking for a variance. PSE chose to acquire easements, as discussed in my June 2024 article in The Loop. The generic easements give PSE exclusive rights to remove any trees/vegetation within the easement and the adjacent property if PSE felt they were a hazard.
With this plan, PSE will likely need to acquire thousands of easements across the Island. Property owners unwilling to enter into the easement agreement are subject to eminent domain. One Island lawyer became concerned about the impact on private insurance and liability with poles on private property. With all the problems with PSE’s approach, we naturally started to favor the undergrounding option.
It seems that Islanders are calling for PSE to conduct a feasibility study for our lines to be undergrounded. A petition has been started, and more than 800 Islanders have signed. To sign the petition and learn more, visit the Vashon-Maury Community Council PSE committee page at https://www.v-mcc.org/pse-advisory-committee.
There are many reasons why undergrounding on Vashon is a good idea, including almost eliminating power line wildfire ignition risk. No PSPS blackouts, no easements or eminent domain acquisitions. No Asplundh crews and tree specialists being paid for costly, ongoing maintenance. The aesthetics of whole trees are retained, with no overhead power lines. Our significant established trees are kept as an essential “decarbonization” strategy.
In the last month, PSE overhead wire upgrade projects on my street have seen the loss of at least five trees of significance. A letter from a fellow Islander to the V-MCC spoke of a PSE arborist’s list and “many hundreds if not thousands of trees slated for removal.”
I recently attended a KC Wildfire Strategy Roundtable. A number of important things stood out. I learned that more fire-resistant, larger trees (with a higher water content in both soil and tree) are much less flammable than the invasive species like Himalayan blackberry and Scotch broom that replace these trees when they are cut down.
I also learned that those I spoke with had not heard about PSPS. And they had not considered that turning off Vashon’s electricity is turning off our water supply, which is almost exclusively supplied by electric pumps, leaving households unable to fight their own fires in high wildfire risk times.
I checked in with the Vashon fire station. The staff on duty had not heard of PSPS. Chief Vinci later told me he is concerned about the impact of cutting off water supply and the Fire Department’s ability to fight fires. I checked in with Water District 19. They were also not aware of PSPS.
For District 19, turning off the electricity leaves only one source of supply – a one-million-gallon gravity-fed tank that holds around 700,000 gallons in summer and pushes water at 200 gallons per minute … which would provide water for only a very limited time to hydrants and households. District 19 has a priority fuel pass to run their generator, but this could be difficult with prolonged outages.
It seems a lot of decisions regarding important Island issues are being made without adequately informing or involving Islanders. The Director of KC Roads is attending the V-MCC meeting on August 15th at 7:00 p.m. at the Land Trust (you can also attend by Zoom). Please attend, and let KC know how important it is to acknowledge and address our unique Island needs.
Since there is an active and current plan triggered by KC to move our power poles, the time is ripe for us to consider undergrounding on our Island. It’s great to see that the 2016 KC Roads Standards support undergrounding: “Underground installation of electric and telecommunication utilities will be strongly encouraged, particularly in urban development.”
In addition to signing the petition, please consider emailing Dow Constantine (kcexec@kingcounty.gov) to express yourself. Yard signs are also available. Questions? Contact undergroundvashonmaury@proton.me.
