The lock that person cut off was to the hatch that accesses the drinking water inside.
“The worker noticed a lot of little white pellets in the area and got suspicious and took some for evidence,” said Ryan Abbott, with the King County Sheriff’s Office.
“Seems like you ought to be able to lock an entrance to the tower, access to the tower, and secure it in a way you can pretty much guarantee no one is getting in there,” said Andrew Heintz, who lives in North Bend.
The Office of Drinking Water with the DOH is helping Sallal with testing to make sure the water is clean.
“A number of years ago, there was a requirement that all systems that serve 3,300 people and more were required to do a vulnerability analysis,” James said.
James said that requirement was put in after 9-11.
The level of security found at the vandalized North Bend tower had a barb-wire fence that was locked, plus a lock on the access hatch at the top.
KIRO7 reached out to Sallal Thursday afternoon to ask if it would tighten its security after the incident but they did not respond by the publication of this story.
Some residents in North Bend are being warned not to drink their tap water on Wednesday after someone broke into the water tower and vandalized it Tuesday, contaminating the water supply, deputies said.
Ryan Abbott told KIRO 7 several locks were cut inside of the tower on Mt.