Mill Creek council approves $2.21 million to repair 1,016 failing catch basins after mandatory inspections

The Mill Creek City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the city’s capital improvement plan and appropriate $2,210,000 from the surface water utility fund to begin a citywide catch-basin repair program ordered under the 2024 Western Washington Phase II municipal stormwater permit.

The action follows inspections that found 1,016 catch basins — about 27.5 percent of the city’s 3,689 catch basins — failed or in need of maintenance. Public works staff told the council the work is required by the city’s permit and must be completed in two groups under the timeline the Department of Ecology sets.

“This allows us to discharge our surface water that we collect from our roadways ... into these waters of the state,” Public Works staff member Carmody told the council during a presentation on the program’s status and schedule. Carmody said the city inspected 3,128 basins on lower-traffic neighborhood streets and 561 on higher-traffic roads and highways and identified 1,016 basins with defects ranging from cracked risers to exposed rebar and failed sumps.

Why it matters: the state…