Birch Bay Waterslides, which lost its operating permit last summer after a man was seriously injured on a slide, will not reopen this summer.
Whatcom County Health and Community Services has laid out a set of stringent conditions in a compliance agreement with the water park, and Birch Bay Waterslides general manager Iain Buchanan said this week that working to meet those conditions was not something the park wanted to rush.
According to a county investigation report from February, inspectors found corroded and missing bolts and ripped sections of fiberglass splash guard on the slide where a guest suffered severe lacerations on his foot and leg in August 2023. The guest, an unidentified 43-year-old man, was on a nearly 40-year-old waterslide called the Hairpin when his legs passed through a broken panel. Another guest, an off-duty nurse, applied tourniquets to both of his legs to stem the bleeding and the man was transported to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent multiple surgeries, according to the state injury report.
Because of the 2023 incident, the health department suspended the water park’s operating permit and has yet to reinstate it. The county agency waited more than six months for documentation from park management, including maintenance and inspection reports from the past five years, and finally received those reports earlier this spring.
“We appreciate the ongoing willingness of Birch Bay Waterslides management to maintain open communications throughout our investigation and our development of the criteria they would need to meet in order to reopen,” health department spokesperson Marie Duckworth wrote in a statement.
The county determined that the park structures were checked routinely, but some of those inspections may have been cursory at best; annual structural assessments by Kingworks Engineering were limited to visual observations, and slide exteriors and fasteners were never checked.
Park management reported that Safe Slide Restoration, a national company responsible for inspecting the fiberglass slides themselves, will not be retained in the future. The park is currently interviewing other contractors to conduct yearly inspections.
In order to have its operating permit reinstated, Birch Bay Waterslides will need to have a licensed engineer evaluate all elements of the water park, including slide and splash guard panels, walkways, decks, and fasteners holding slides together; complete all repairs recommended by the engineer; provide a comprehensive self-inspection plan; and correct all violations laid out in the initial inspection report made last August. (The violations included not only the ripped splash guard that caused the guest to suffer injury, but also a lack of record-keeping.)
Buchanan estimates that completion of the checklist, which the park received from the health department in April, could take anywhere from three weeks to more than a month, depending on a variety of factors.
“Although we feel the agreement to be very reasonable, the unknown scope of work could potentially take longer than expected as we rely on the findings and experience of outside contractors within the industry,” he said in an email to Cascadia Daily News.
If and when Birch Bay Waterslides finishes its checklist, the health department will perform a final investigation before allowing the park to resume operations.
“We will utilize this valuable opportunity to move forward with future objectives,” Buchanan said. “We understand that this may be a disappointment to many, as it is for us, however, we strongly believe that this is the best course of action for the future of the Birch Bay Waterslides.”
The 14.5-acre water park at 4874 Birch Bay Lynden Road has eight slides, a kiddie pool and activity pool, and a hot tub. Park ownership is listed as Birch Bay Jun Yu Waterslides LLC.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
