Mountlake Terrace hosted a regional utilities forum where leaders from Everett, Alderwood Water and Wastewater District and the City of Edmonds outlined pressing water and wastewater challenges, described major ongoing projects and urged residents to prepare for rate decisions tied to deferred maintenance and rising construction costs.

Gary (Mountlake Terrace public works director) opened the meeting by stressing regional interdependence. "This is really a team effort here," he said, describing Mountlake Terrace as a single point of receipt for Everett-supplied water and reviewing the city's system footprint: about 90 miles of water mains, three storage tanks across four pressure zones, 70 miles of gravity sewer main and four lift stations.

The forum's central message was the same from each presenter: much of the region's system is aging, key pieces must be replaced and costs have climbed sharply. Ryan Sass, Everett public works director, said Everett's system "provides water for about a little over 3 quarters of the population of Snohomish County or about 670,000 residents," and highlighted two "generational" projects: replacement of Reservoir 3 and upgrades to Everett's water filtration plant. Sass noted construction inflation has pushed costs higher: "we had 26% increase in construction costs in 1 year over 2021," and a 39% rise from 2020–2024, with additional increases expected.

John McClellan, general manager of Alderwood Water and Wastewater District, described Alderwood's role as a wholesale supplier to five partners—including Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and Mukilteo—and said the district serves roughly 300,000 people with nearly 57,000 water connections, about 700 miles of water mains and nearly 500 miles of sewer mains. McClellan emphasized the district's reliance on Everett transmission lines and multiple steel reservoirs that provide capacity for growth across southwest Snohomish County.

Phil Williams, Edmonds public works director, focused on wastewater challenges at Edmonds' regional treatment plant, including biosolids handling and emerging pollutant rules. He described Edmonds' recent move away from incineration toward a gasification-based solids-management system built under the state energy-savings contracting (ESCO) program. "The faceplate value of that contract was over $26,000,000," Williams said, and acknowledged ongoing commissioning problems with the plant's gasification equipment and the contractor relationships (Ameresco and the technology provider EcoRemedy). He added a potential regulatory driver: nitrogen removal for Puget Sound, which he said will affect about 84 treatment plants in the region and likely require expensive upgrades that "will increase costs" and hit ratepayers.

Panelists also described other budget and rate drivers: deferred capital spending, debt service, state and wholesale supply costs, and local utility tax contributions. Gary explained that the city had planned roughly $29 million in water capital work from 2019–2024 but had completed about $6 million, largely because of staffing and delivery capacity, and that a $7.6 million low-interest loan from the state public works fund had been obtained to help pay for projects.

Consultant Chris Gonzales (FCS/Bowman) explained rate-structure choices and how they affect households differently. "Utilities costs are mostly fixed, like 85, 90 plus percent are fixed," Gonzales said, meaning some agencies choose higher fixed charges to stabilize revenue while others rely more on usage charges to promote conservation. Panelists showed comparisons with neighboring jurisdictions, noting Mountlake Terrace sits toward the middle-to-upper range on combined water, sewer and storm bills among peers; they also noted situations—such as major reservoir projects elsewhere—that can abruptly raise another city's rates.

During audience Q&A, residents pressed on high bills and affordability. One unidentified resident said, "$300 is insane for 2 retired people," and asked whether billing frequency or discounts for low use could help. Panelists replied they would explore options—monthly billing and rebate-style low-income programs were discussed—and reiterated the trade-offs between deferring capital work and risking larger main breaks or water outages.

Other audience topics included rain barrels and graywater reuse, staffing and workforce pipelines for trades, and whether new housing developments would affect local service. Panelists said rain-capture and on-site reuse are part of future planning, staffing shortages are an industrywide concern as many utility workers near retirement, and new developments are evaluated through system modeling so long-term service impacts (especially fire flow) are addressed before approvals.

Why it matters: leaders warned that necessary replacements of aging reservoirs, mains and treatment-plant upgrades coincide with construction-cost inflation and new regulatory burdens (notably nitrogen limits and PFAS-related solids-handling concerns). Those factors are driving a multi-year planning and rate discussion for Mountlake Terrace and partner agencies.

The panel committed to return with additional, specific rate-path options and a follow-up forum focused on sewer and stormwater in the next budget cycle. No formal decisions or votes were taken at the forum.