About

About Us

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company is to ensure public health and protection of property by providing sufficient quantities of safe and economical water for drinking, domestic use, and fire protection. Our goal is to provide our members with economical water service that meets or exceeds all water quality standards, maintaining policies and practices that benefit the health and welfare of the community well into the future.

OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The water system officially operates under the name of the Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company (Water Company). The Water Company owns a Group A Community water system that provides service to an area comprising the majority of the City of Edgewood, which is north of Puyallup and east of Milton (see Figure 1-1, Location Map). The City of Edgewood was incorporated in 1996, though the water company has served the area since 1925.

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AND DECISION-MAKING PROCEDURES

The Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company is a privately owned non-profit corporation governed by an elected seven-member Board of Directors. The General Manager manages the day-to-day operations. The Water Company has no capital stock but issues memberships, which entitles all members the same interest. Members agree to follow the Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company ByLaws as a condition of membership. The address for the water company is:

Mountain View-Edgewood Water Company, 11610 32nd Street East, Edgewood, Washington 98372-2099

WATER SYSTEM HISTORY

In 1925 a group of North Hill residents decided to create a community water system because their private shallow wells were beginning to go dry during the summer months. The original 79 Charter Members incorporated as a nonprofit in 1925 under the name North Hill Water Company. The first member and president of the company was Mr. C. F. Hendricks, and the membership fee was $250.00. The source of the water was the DeChaux Springs which are located just off Meridian Highway at the bottom of the hill. Those springs and 5 acres of surrounding land were purchased from Mr. DeChaux for the sum of $450.00. The original members worked together in developing the springs, and hand digging ditches to install the water mains. One of the main recurring expenses in operating the water company was for sharpening of picks. These springs are now covered to preserve water quality, and they provide the water we withdraw from Wells #1R and #8. Members of the Water Company were entitled “to one Service through a ¾ inch pipe connection with the Water System to one house, barn, chicken house and other out buildings in connection with one homesite, in accordance with the rules and by-laws of the Company.”

In 1926 water was pumped up to and stored in a 35-foot wooden tower tank that stood on 12 posts at our current South Reservoir site (49^th and Sumner Heights).

In 1930, due to the neglect to file the annual registration forms for a non-profit corporation with the State of Washington, the North Hill Water Company was dissolved and a new non-profit corporation was formed and registered as the Mountain View-Edgewood Water Company.

The water system grew very slowly during the next few years, and found itself in serious financial trouble during the depression. Luckily a Mrs. Hattie Lee came to the rescue with a $10,000 loan and the company was able to keep solvent through these times. Mrs. Lee was later paid in full. At about this same time, Mr. and Mrs. Ben and Lois Schooler became the Manager and Secretary of the Water Company, and remained in these positions until 1951. Since 1940 growth was occurring at a steady pace, and continues to this day. In February of 1951 Mr. Reg Sutton was hired as the Superintendent, and remained in that position until his death in 1963.

In 1950 the Water Company replaced the wooden storage tank with its first steel tank at a cost of $15,000.00. Mr. Oscar Williams became the Secretary and held this position for over 20 years. The cost of membership was increased from $250.00 to $300.00.

On August 5, 1952 the DeChaux Spring stopped flowing for one day. This sparked the drilling of Well #1 at the spring location, and it produced 500 gallons per minute (gpm).

The original steel tank was enlarged in 1954 to increase its capacity and to increase water pressure. The South East Reservoir was raised 16 feet by lifting the old shell and welding an additional 16 feet of wall plate to the bottom. This project increased the capacity to 447,000 gallons. The South West Reservoir was built in 1971 on the same property and has a storage capacity of 734,500 gallons. A third reservoir, commonly referred to as the North Reservoir, was constructed in 2002 and has 1.0 million gallon (MG) in capacity. The North Reservoir includes a booster station operating with three centrifugal pumps. In 2007 a booster station was built at the South Reservoir site to increase system pressure to preserve water quality, meet fireflow requirements, and meet growth.

In 1964 Mr. Nelson Beal was hired as the Superintendent and held the position until his retirement in March of 1980. Mr. Larry Bradbury was hired as the Superintendent in April 1980, and remained in the position until 1983. He was followed in January of 1983 by Mr. Joe Smith, who was the Superintendent until June of 1988. Mr. Robert Taylor became the Superintendent in September of 1988. He was succeeded in 2003 by Mr. Marc Marcantonio who was hired as the General Manager, and currently holds this position.

All of the water provided from Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company comes from our own wells. We do not need to purchase water from any other source. A total of eleven wells have been developed since the Company’s original incorporation. The first well, Valley Well No. 1, was drilled in 1953 and was replaced in 1999 with the new Valley Well (No. 1R) on the same site adjacent to Well No. 8. The most recent well (Well #11) was drilled in 2007 and is capable of producing more than 1,000 gpm of the highest quality water that doesn’t require any kind of treatment. Our distribution mains are primarily cast and ductile iron, and we have approximately 56 miles of water mains within our service boundaries. Due to the high quality of our water, and our non-corrosive soils, and because we do not add corrosive chemicals, our water mains and appurtenances remain in excellent condition beyond normal life expectancies. This keeps maintenance and capital improvement costs to a minimum, and allows us to provide clean, safe tap water as nature intends it.

The Board and staff of Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company take our public health responsibility very seriously, and we have instituted rigorous water quality testing in greater frequency and quantity than required by health agencies. We maintain very strict development standards to prevent contamination during construction projects, and we have a rigorous cross-connection control program to prevent accidental customer contamination of our water supply due to back-siphonage and backpressure.

Our Water - Source

GEOLOGY - The Water Company’s service area is located on a glacial drift plain, which ranges in altitude from 50 to 500 feet, gradually rising from northwest to southeast. The larger drift plane extends from Thurston County north to southern British Columbia and is chiefly the product of glacial and glaciofluvial processes of the most recent glaciation. The geologic conditions occurring in the Water Company’s service area are a direct reflection of the glacial activity. Exposed soils in the area consist of unconsolidated sediments (clay, silt, sand and gravel) deposited by the glaciers or by stream and rivers during interglacial periods. Unconsolidated sediments also dominate the subsurface geology and the underlying groundwater basin to depths of over 2,000 feet in some locations.

Layer 1, Vashon Till - Layer 1 includes the Vashon till and the Vashon recessional deposits that overlie the till in some areas. The soils in the area are classified as the Alderwood-Everett Association. The layer is generally less than 150 feet thick and covers most of the upland. The till is a compact mixture of sand and gravel in a silt and clay matrix. The till has a low permeability, which retards ground water flow through it. The recessional deposits are typically coarse sand and gravel which supply perched water in some areas.

Layer 2, Vashon Advance Aquifer System - Across most of the Edgewood upland, Vashon advance outwash deposits exist beneath the Vashon till. These deposits form the Vashon advance aquifer system, with distinct aquifers formed in the higher permeability portions of the unit. The most prominent aquifer is the Redondo-Milton Channel (RMC), which extends southward into the Mountain-View Edgewood area. With the exception of Well 5, Layer 2 is the primary source for all of the Company’s wells.

The outwash deposits which make up the unit are varied, ranging from silty sand to very clean, sandy gravel. The unit's thickness varies from absent to more than 200 feet at the thickest portion of the RMC.

Layer 3, Lower Confining Unit - Layer 3 is the lower confining unit for the Qva and RMC. It represents the aquitard between the Vashon advance aquifer system and the intermediate aquifer system. It is formed by a thick sequence of silt and clay-rich sediments, including the Lawton Clay member of the Vashon Drift and, in places, a till. At many locations, the unit is predominantly silt and clay; at other locations, it is primarily a mixture of sand and gravel with silt and clay included as a matrix. The unit varies widely in thickness. Where the RMC reaches its maximum thickness, Layer 3 is very thin to absent. Elsewhere, the layer can exceed 300 feet thick.

Layer 4, Intermediate Aquifer System - The intermediate aquifer system is a mixture of isolated aquifers and lower-permeability sediments laterally deposited (as opposed to deposition above or below the layer) between the aquifers. The most significant aquifer in the unit is the Mirror Lake Aquifer located in Federal Way. The aquifer system also includes smaller, isolated aquifers on both sides of the upland, collectively referred to as the Eastern Upland Aquifers and the North Shore Aquifers. The unit has upper and lower aquifer zones within it. This zonation is particularly evident in the Eastern Upland Aquifers.

Layer 5, Deep Confining Unit - Layer 5, (the deep confining unit) is the aquitard between the intermediate aquifer system and the deep aquifer system. It is the most substantial confining layer on the upland. It is found throughout the upland and is 200 to 400 feet thick at most locations. It consists largely of low permeability materials ranging from clay to silty, fine sand.

Layer 6, Deep Aquifer Unit - Little is known about the deep aquifer system, which contains the Federal Way Deep Aquifer (FWDA), but it is probable that the system is hydraulically connected to the deep aquifers in the Puyallup Valley. The unit includes the fine-to-medium sand deposits of the Federal Way Deep Aquifer, as well as lower permeability sediments found elsewhere on the upland where the FWDA is missing. The unit is probably also in direct continuity with the Puget Sound.

Hydrogeology - Since our aquifer connects to the Puget Sound, and we withdraw water at the low point just prior to the aquifer connecting to the Sound, our members provide a benefit to instream flows. Most domestic use of water is for irrigation. By pumping water to the surface in our service area, the subsequent drainage of this water benefits the local ecology and instream flows of WRIA 10 and its salmon-bearing streams (essentially recycling the water). In most water service areas the opposite is true, especially if the water purveyor utilizes surface water for its source. The volume of water available to our members is only limited by our allocated water rights and our pumping, storage, and distribution system; not by our aquifer which stores more water than we require.

Our Water – Abundance

Due to the size and quality of the aquifer, coupled with its location, our water quantity is not directly linked to the amount of snowfall in the mountains. Unlike neighboring water purveyors, we continue to enjoy large quantities of water during drought years.

Our Water – Chemicals

Mt. View-Edgewood Water Company does not add any chemicals to the water. Our water is delivered to your property without chlorine, fluoride, or any other chemicals. Since our water is filtered slowly and naturally through glacial gravels deep beneath the surface, and the aquifer doesn’t contain even naturally occurring elements that affect taste, acidity, or hardness, we work hard to maintain purity and deliver the best-tasting water nature has to offer.

Our Water – Hardness/pH

pH is 7.2 Hardness: 4 grains per gallon, or specified another way is 70 ppm or 70 mg per liter (1 grain per gallon equals 17.1 mg per liter of hardness)