A broken Tacoma Water main sent street water pouring into Evelyn and José Castellar's Federal Way home near Lake Jean in September 2024, wrecking the plumbing, tearing through all three floors, and eventually forcing the family out for nearly a year. The damage was so extensive that Tacoma Public Utilities ultimately agreed to pay more than $1.4 million to settle the family's claim, a payout the utility says is the largest it has ever made for a single-family home.
According to The News Tribune, Tacoma Public Utilities received a call about a water leak at roughly 3:20 a.m. on September 27, 2024, and crews stopped the flow from the broken underground main about 30 minutes later. By then, water had already flowed into the street and into the Castellars' house, which the couple had called home since 1985. The leak caused structural damage to the house and driveway and left the property contaminated by street water, according to the outlet's reporting.
The scope of the damage went far beyond a soggy basement. The Castellars' claim described major damage on all three floors, a washed-away yard, and cracked, sunken cement, the newspaper reported. Their home, built in 1968 and valued at $900,000 according to King County records, needed all of its floors releveled, its walls and ceiling interiors torn out, and repairs or replacements for the HVAC system, a structural beam, all windows, most doors, the deck, and the garage.
A Two-Year Road Back Home
Remediation crews ran 44 large fans through the house to dry it out, and nearly 30 pilings were eventually installed to stabilize the structure, the report states. Tacoma Public Utilities offered the Castellars housing after the flood, and the family did not return to their Federal Way home until last fall, more than a year after the pipe burst.
Evelyn Castellar, 73, told the paper that TPU took responsibility for the damage and wanted to fix it quickly. But she also said, according to the outlet, that city attorney Chris Bacha delayed the pilings work, which she claimed increased the damages and repair costs. The News Tribune's reporting does not indicate a response from Bacha to that specific claim.
Foundation work alone cost more than $212,000, part of a final settlement that also covered contractor remediation, personal-property storage, home stabilization, and restoration costs. Tacoma City Council approved the $977,000 TPU payment on July 28, 2026, bringing the total settlement to $1.46 million — a figure TPU spokesperson Mike Halliday said represents the largest claim on record for a single-family home.
Why the Payout Took So Long
The delay owes much to how Washington law and city rules govern municipal claims. Under RCW 4.96.020, anyone seeking property damage compensation from a local government must file a formal tort claim and then wait a mandatory 60 days before filing suit, a period during which the statute of limitations is paused. Evelyn Castellar filed such a claim with the city as part of the process.
Compounding the wait, City of Tacoma Risk Management guidelines specify that the municipality does not pay contractors or repair vendors directly. Property owners must arrange and pay for repairs themselves, then submit receipts, estimates, and proof of ownership for the city to evaluate before reimbursing them — a process that can leave families fronting major structural costs while awaiting approval.
Standard homeowners insurance offered the Castellars little help. Per the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner, standard policies generally exclude losses from external municipal water main breaks, treating off-premises pipe failures and surface runoff as uninsured perils unless a homeowner carries specific flood or service-line endorsements. That left the family reliant almost entirely on the municipal claims process, even as Washington common law imposes a duty on property owners to take prompt, reasonable steps to halt further structural deterioration while a settlement works its way through the system.
Because the payment exceeded routine administrative spending limits, it required formal review and approval from both Tacoma's five-member Public Utility Board and the elected Tacoma City Council before TPU could pay for the foundation work. Legal settlements like this one are ultimately funded by utility ratepayers.
A Family Rebuilding Amid Health Struggles
The ordeal unfolded alongside serious health challenges for Evelyn Castellar, who has had additional heart surgeries and underwent open-heart surgery as a toddler at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. She has also beaten breast cancer. Despite the flood, the family decided to stay in Honduras during part of the recovery process; Evelyn and José Castellar founded Projecto Honduras in 2008, an organization that provides medical care and other aid to communities there.
The settlement did not provide compensation for the inconvenience the family endured over nearly two years without a stable home. Evelyn Castellar said she worries about how a future flood might affect a potential buyer, though the couple said they are not looking to sell their home.
An Aging System Under Strain
Tacoma Water maintains roughly 1,459 miles of water mains across a 119-square-mile service area spanning Pierce County and southern King County, serving more than 111,000 customer meters, according to Tacoma Public Utilities. Federal Way sits at a regional utility boundary where water service is split among providers including the Lakehaven Water and Sewer District and Tacoma Water, which extends its territory into southern King County even though it is based across the county line.
The break fits into a much larger national pattern. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates roughly 240,000 water main breaks occur across the country each year, largely tied to aging underground pipe infrastructure installed more than 50 years ago. Tacoma Water says it prioritizes pipe replacement using a risk-based asset management model that weighs pipe material, break history, and failure consequences against the utility's nearly $1 billion in fixed assets — a budget that must stretch across a sprawling, multi-jurisdictional system that also wholesales water to regional partners like the Cascade Water Alliance.
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