EVERETT – City officials and the Tulalip Tribes have signed an agreement that resolves a $37 million legal claim and will provide a better water source for the reservation for the next 100 years.
Water is a key element in the Tulalips’ economic growth plan, as well as their efforts to restore salmon runs. The reservation currently gets most of its water from wells, some of which have had saltwater intrusion. The tribes also buy water from Marysville.
But they will soon need more water, so they went to Everett.
The agreement ended several years of negotiations and a claim that arose from the Spada Lake dam, tribal board member Glen Gobin said.
The dam was built in 1960 about 25 miles east of Everett in the Cascade foothills. Spada Lake is the water source for Everett and many surrounding areas – about 500,000 people, or 80 percent of Snohomish County’s residents.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensed Everett and the Snohomish County PUD to operate the dam, the powerhouse and the Spada and Chaplain reservoirs.
Everett and the PUD have sole water rights at Spada Lake, granted by the state Department of Ecology, Everett utilities director Tom Thetford said. Everett then sells the water to other communities.
The Tulalips filed the claim against Everett over construction of a diversion dam on the Sultan River in 1916 that destroyed a salmon run.
“A huge salmon run would come down, and the tribes would harvest it,” said Stan Jones Sr., chairman of the Tulalip Tribes.
The Tulalips and Everett officials signed the agreement to end the $37 million claim Sept. 16 at American Legion Memorial Park. The tribes previously settled a similar $1 million claim against the PUD over the Spada Lake dam.
“We’re really concerned with all the development that’s coming,” Jones said. “People will be digging more wells, and it’ll affect ours. There’s only so much water coming through there.”
Everett and tribal officials have met with the state’s congressional delegation about the need for a water pipeline from Everett to the reservation.
“We’re really pushing on it,” Jones said.
The agreement calls for:
* The two governments to enhance communication and problem-solving efforts, including mediation when necessary, and use litigation only as a last resort.
* Setting aside $5 million each of the next three years to begin the planning work, and to work with Congress to secure the estimated $50 million needed to build a 36-inch water pipeline from Everett to 88th Street NE. Everett would then sell the water to the Tulalips for 50 years, with a 50-year renewal.
The pipeline would follow Highway 529, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said.
* The Tulalips will support Everett’s pending application for additional water rights.
Currently, Everett is licensed to take 400 cubic feet per second of water from Spada Lake. In the mid-1950s, the city filed an application for an additional 200 cfs. That application is still pending.
Every six years, the city reassesses its water needs to determine the changes brought about by growth, Thetford said.
The Tulalips currently buy about 10 million gallons of water per day from Everett through Marysville. With all the development on the reservation, the tribes now project that by 2050 they’ll need 36 million gallons per day, Thetford said. With the projections of Everett’s other water customers, that would put the city over its allocation.
“Having the tribes support us on that is a very big deal to us,” Thetford said.
If the Tulalips don’t need all that water, the city could use it for other things, such as industrial growth, Stephanson said.
“That’s why this is critically important to us. It does and will resolve that fish claim. Secondly, we will treat Tulalip like any other wholesale customers we have,” he said.
Historically, the federal government has had to pay settlements with tribes, Stephanson said.
“We have the ability to provide Congress with the agreement and ask for their support. The work is all done. It’s a model that every other area where there’s a dispute between tribal nations and other jurisdictions could use,” he said.
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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