Former Stillaguamish Clean Water District

SWM District Consolidation

Effective July 21, 2017, Snohomish County consolidated the Stillaguamish River Clean Water District (CWD) with the Snohomish and South County Watershed Management Areas (WMAs) into one county-wide Surface Water Management (SWM) Utility District. For more information about this change, see the SWM consolidation ordinance (17-020) (PDF).

Background

In 1993, the Snohomish County Council created the Stillaguamish River Clean Water District (CWD) to “provide a comprehensive approach to managing and regulating surface water in order to respect and preserve the county’s rivers, streams, lakes, and other waterbodies” (Snohomish County Code Title 25A.05). Here's how it worked:

• Landowners within the former CWD paid annual fees that enabled the county to provide water quality and water quantity management services in the Stillaguamish River Basin.
• The Clean Water District Advisory Board, comprised of CWD ratepayers, agencies, and businesses, was created to guide the spending of CWD revenues. 
• Snohomish County has used CWD revenues to provide numerous surface water services to landowners within the CWD. These public services have included: technical and financial assistance to landowners, shellfish protection, water quality monitoring and pollution control, drainage and flooding assistance, and salmon recovery projects.