Bothell City Council was scheduled to consider updated water shortage rules

What the records say

The Sept. 15, 2026 City Council agenda packet listed two actions under one consent-agenda item (Agenda Bill #26-166): a resolution adopting an updated Water Shortage Contingency Plan, which lays out how the city responds when water supplies run tight, and an ordinance amending BMC 18.06.140 and 11.20.002 to codify water curtailment actions and enforcement ¹. The plan update follows a 2024 City Climate Vulnerability Assessment that identified growing drought and water-supply risks, and the proposed code language would give the city authority to enforce mandated curtailment through warnings and fines ¹. The updated plan outlines five response stages — Advisory, Voluntary, Mandatory, Emergency, and Immediate Crisis — with demand-reduction goals of 15%, 30%, and 50% at the Voluntary, Mandatory, and Emergency stages respectively ¹. Bothell has never activated the Mandatory or Emergency stage ¹.

• The council was scheduled to vote on a resolution adopting the updated Water Shortage Contingency Plan (Agenda Bill #26-166).
• A companion ordinance would repeal and replace BMC 18.06.140 and amend BMC 11.20.002 to codify water curtailment actions and enforcement, including a process of door-hanger notices, warning letters, civil penalties, and possible shut-offs for irrigation customers with more than three violations ¹.
• The agenda packet also listed a separate consent-agenda item (Agenda Bill #26-167) to adopt a resolution authorizing an interagency agreement with the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services for Energy Savings Performance Contracting Services; the packet says the agreement would not commit the city to any specific project ¹.

Why it matters

If adopted, the ordinance would let the city issue notices, warnings, civil penalties, and possible irrigation shut-offs when residents or businesses violate mandatory water-use restrictions during a shortage — for example, lawn watering and automatic irrigation are prohibited at the Mandatory stage ¹. The agenda packet says fines would be a last resort, with a water-use violation fine to be added to the 2027 Fee Schedule aligned with existing water-related fees currently set at $532 ¹. The available records do not establish the meeting's outcome.

What changed / what's next

• The proposed ordinance would repeal and replace BMC 18.06.140 (water curtailment) and amend BMC 11.20.002 to exempt 18.06.140 from the general code-enforcement procedure, giving the city authority to enforce mandated water curtailment through warnings and fines ¹.
• The supplied records are pre-meeting materials only; whether the resolution and ordinance were adopted on Sept. 15 is not shown ¹.
• The water-use violation fine amount will be set later in the 2027 Fee Schedule; the packet cites existing comparable fees at $532 as the alignment benchmark ¹.