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Mill Creek studies surface-water permit obligations, inspections and potential rate changes
Summary
City engineer Dan Carmody briefed the council on NPDES phase 2 stormwater permit obligations including mapping, illicit-discharge detection, inspections (95% of catch basins every two years), source-control inspections of 20% of businesses and TMDL monitoring; staff signaled possible rate updates after further analysis.
City engineer Dan Carmody told the Mill Creek City Council on May 20 that the city must expand from reactive maintenance to ongoing utility-style operations to comply with the Western Washington NPDES Phase 2 municipal stormwater permit administered by the Washington Department of Ecology.
Carmody reviewed required program components: stormwater planning (SWMP and annual SMAP reporting), MS4 mapping and documentation, public education and outreach, illicit-discharge detection and elimination (IDDE), inspection and source-control programs for new development and existing properties, operations and maintenance for facilities, and TMDL (total maximum daily load) monitoring. He said North Creek has a TMDL for coliform and that pet waste is a known contributor; the city runs a pet-waste outreach program tied to that requirement.
Carmody described operational requirements and frequencies the city must meet: maintaining an MS4 GIS map of catch basins and outfalls, inspecting 95% of catch basins on a two-year cycle (effectively about half each year), and inspecting 20% of businesses in targeted categories per year (roughly 13–16 businesses annually). He noted the city has been operating reactively but needs to budget for increased ongoing maintenance, contracted pipe inspection/cleaning and forthcoming capital projects including pipe replacements and fish-passage fixes at two culverts the city controls.
Council members asked whether the surface-water utility should be self-sustaining through rates; Carmody confirmed that is the goal and that the current rate structure is set through the end of the year. He said staff will return with an analysis of ongoing compliance costs, trade-offs between contracting and in-house work, and impacts on rates. Carmody also noted the city received a grant to cover half of a tree-canopy mapping effort and is coordinating basin-specific SNAP work with Snohomish County.
No formal action was taken; staff asked for direction to continue developing cost estimates and return with proposed rate adjustments and prioritized capital projects.
