Pacific Power addressing purple lights in Eastern Washington

WAITSBURG—In an email dated April 8, 2022, Pacific Power Regional Business Manager Lori Wyman communicated with the City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe the path forward to replace failed purple streetlights.

“The lighting manufacturer, Acuity, is preparing for a full night patrol of the 18 cities included in the 2018-2019 LED conversion project,” according to the email.

Waitsburg was one of the cities involved in the conversion project and has multiple affected lights.

Acurity will hire a third party to perform the patrol and report on the status of each light, starting in Yakima and moving east. They began the inspections on April 4 and expect to complete the work by the end of April.

Once the count has been completed, the numbers will be submitted to the manufacturer’s warranty program manager. New fixtures will be produced and shipped for installation.

Acuity is also going to handle the removal and installation of the replacement fixtures through a PacifiCorp-approved contractor. The entire project from identifying the affected purple lights, to producing, shipping, and installing the replacement fixtures is expected to take up to 11 weeks from the project’s start on April 4.

Wyman said the company recognizes that the lights have not all turned purple at the same time. They will add subsequent patrols to identify further failed fixtures following this initial remediation.

The bulbs change color when the phosphor coating over the diodes fails prematurely. This requires that the whole fixture be replaced as part of the product recall.