Year in Review: Birch Bay Water and Sewer District

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Birch Bay Water and Sewer District has continued operations. Our essential workers continue to safeguard public health by providing clean safe drinking water and the management of our wastewater treatment plant. We welcomed two new operators, one each in water and sewer, Chris Bork and Benny Tapia. 

Chris comes to the district with a commercial driver’s license and many years of driving experience, which will be handy in operating our dump truck and other heavy equipment. Benny, who has a degree in biology, is forklift certified and has water testing experience, which applies to laboratory work in our wastewater treatment plant. 

The water operations’ staff is close to completion installing Automated Read Meters throughout the district. The waste water treatment plant implemented a study of our outflow and experimental treatment methods to reduce our impact on the Strait of Georgia. 

In order to provide a safe work place and essential services to our customers, we have implemented changes to how we are working. Our business office is open on an appointment basis to provide a safe barrier for our employees. We continue to provide customer service by phone and email. 

Management has worked closely with our public assistance partners to create a customer assistance plan for delinquent accounts with the support of our board of commissioners. We remain responsive to changes to Washington state proclamations for the suspension non-payment water shut-offs and late fees. We have postponed our resumption of shut-offs until the beginning of 2022, to provide customers time to enter into a repayment plan. We have proactively contacted affected customers with their options.

Erin Carampot, BBWSD accounts receivable clerk