Repairs planned to failing pipeline

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 7, 2007

MUKILTEO – Major repairs to the Big Gulch sewer line could begin this summer to prevent the pipeline from failing.

The Olympus Terrace Sewer District wants to spend up to $7 million to repair the line’s foundation, add two other pipelines for sewer and storm drainage, and add a lining inside the existing concrete pipe.

Erosion from heavy rain and water runoff has eroded the soil supporting the 36-year-old pipeline that carries sewage from the northern two-thirds of Mukilteo down the gulch to a treatment plant on Possession Sound. The sewer line is exposed in several areas.

If the line breaks, raw sewage and other pollutants could be released into Big Gulch Creek and Possession Sound. Residents in the sewer district would not be able to flush their toilets if the line were shut down.

“The cost of doing nothing is huge,” said consultant Bob Rude of Robinson, Stafford &Rude of Olympia.

This week, Rude’s firm, which the sewer district hired to evaluate the problem, showed five different repair plans in an informational City Council meeting. The sewer district recommended the cheapest alternative. Other options would have cost as much as $13.5 million and would have called for tunneling beneath homes or realigning the pipeline.

Mukilteo will process permits for the pipeline work, but the city itself won’t share in the repair costs.

Ratepayers are likely to see increases in their bills because of the work, district manager Patrick Sorensen said. The district serves about 4,000 households.

The district has already secured the money for the project after receiving $8.1 million in low-interest loans from the state to pay for the repair work.

A 200-foot section of the line underwent $600,000 of emergency repairs in December. The sewer district told the City Council that other parts of the line are in jeopardy unless the entire pipeline is fixed.

The district is asking to be reimbursed for $500,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The repairs to the sewer line must be done correctly so the problem doesn’t resurface later, Mayor Joe Marine said.

“The decisions we make today, we need to look at that 30, 40 years from now and the impact it will have,” he said.

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.