Tulalip Tribes opt to build own sewage treatment plant

Herald staff

MARYSVILLE — Tulalip Tribal leaders have decided to build their own sewage treatment plant. That decision will probably mean money in the pocket for the tribes, but may wind up costing a bit more for Marysville utility ratepayers.

For months, the tribes and Marysville city leaders have been discussing the option of a partnership to build a regional outfall pipe that could eventually collect treated waste from several cities, including Everett, and the Tulalip Reservation, and send it many miles out into Puget Sound.

But the city and the tribes could not come to agreement on the project.

Sewer and water rate increases have been inevitable for some time. But now that the Tulalips are building their own system, Marysville ratepayers will probably have to pay a bit more for sewer disposal.

Public meetings are planned before any rate hike goes into effect. Currently, sewer rates run $20 a month for residential customers within the city limits and $24 a month for residential customers outside city limits.

The city already allows the Tulalips to empty 50,000 gallons of sewage a day into Marysville’s waste water treatment plant. The two parties have discussed whether to enter into a mutual agreement with the Tulalips to dispose of 750,000 gallons per day from the Tulalip Reservation by April 2002. Most of that additional waste will come from the Tulalips’ new business park off the 88th Street NE exit from I-5.

The Tulalips also requested that the city dispose of up to 3.5 million gallons a day over the next 20 years.

Tulalip leaders returned last week from England where they examined a state-of-the-art sewer treatment plant and liked what they saw.

If they would have agreed to jointly build a system with Marysville, the Tulalips would have spent between $12 million and $15 million. If they build their own system, they stand to pay less than that, John McCoy, Tulalip’s government affairs director, said Monday.