Mukilteo rejects county’s offer to help pay for pipeline

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, July 11, 2006

MUKILTEO – City officials here have turned down an offer from Snohomish County to help pay for a pipeline to control erosion in Big Gulch Creek.

City Council members said the county’s offer of $3.9 million, plus maintenance and operations costs up to $20,000 per year, wasn’t enough to help pay for the $13.5 million project.

Most of the rainwater that runs down the gulch comes from county-owned Paine Field, officials said.

The city, the county and the Olympus Terrace Sewer District would have split the cost three ways, with the district paying $5.9 million and the city and county $3.8 million each.

The cost would have covered a new sewer line down the gulch in addition to the bypass line for storm water.

The council voted 4-2 on Monday to reject the deal.

“I don’t want to pay the freight for the county,” City Councilwoman Lori Kaiser said. “We’re not the big dog, the county’s the big dog here.”

The city asked the county to pay its storm water fees, which would start around $390,000 per year, in addition to its one-quarter share. The county said no.

The airport and sewer district could still make a deal without the city, officials said Tuesday. Details have yet to be discussed.

If that doesn’t happen, the city will be on its own to handle erosion in Big Gulch, where salmon habitat has washed away and the sewer district’s once-buried pipeline is now exposed.

City Councilman Marko Liias, one of the two dissenters, said rejecting the deal could eventually cost taxpayers more.

The sewer district’s line will still have to be replaced for an estimated $10 million, and the district will pay for stream restoration in the gulch.

The district has an $8 million low-interest loan from the state, but rates will still likely have to be raised to offset losing the city’s contribution, district manager Patrick Sorensen said. The district covers the northern two-thirds of the city.

With outlets connecting to Possession Sound, the deal would have cost the city an estimated $4.7 million. The district’s costs for handling erosion on its own are uncertain, but could rise to more than $5 million over the next 30 years, officials said.

“Maybe it’s $13 million if we don’t build the bypass, maybe it’s $15 million. The number starts to grow,” Liias said.

Kaiser, however, didn’t like the fact the city would have assumed all the risk of ownership of the line, with no guarantee of help from the county for replacing it in the future.

The airport, in lieu of hooking into a bypass line, could spend anywhere from $2 million to $8 million on detention ponds, airport deputy director Bill Dolan said. The airport has already spent more than $2 million, he said.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.