Category Archives: News

Mason PUD 1 Receives Funding from Drinking Water State Revolving Fund

Mason County PUD No. 1 received notice from the Washington State Department of Health that five capital water projects submitted by the PUD in November of 2019 were chosen for Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) loans, totaling nearly $600,000. Three of these projects qualified for a 100% loan forgiveness subsidy, including the Bay East […]

Mason PUD 1 Receives Five Excellence in Communications Awards from NWPPA

At the annual Northwest Communications & Energy Innovations Conference (NIC) in Marysville last week, Mason County PUD No. 1 was honored with three first place plaques and two second place nods at the Excellence in Communications contest, hosted by the Northwest Public Power Association. PUD 1 was recognized in the Group A (10,000 customers or […]

Op-Ed: Mason PUD 1 Commission Supports the FCRPS and Lower Snake River Dams

Mason County PUD No. 1’s board of commissioners passed a resolution recently in support of the federal Columbia River Power System and the four lower Snake River dams. The reason for this is that our utility, along with the region’s public power community at large, realize that the lower Snake River and Columbia River dams […]

PUD 1’s TJ Goos Named “2018 Water Operator of the Year” by Evergreen Rural Water of Washington

At the April 23, 2019 board of commissioners meeting, Mason County PUD No. 1’s lead water system operator TJ Goos was presented with a plaque inscribed “2018 Water Operator of the Year” by Evergreen Rural Water of Washington (ERWoW). Goos was surprised with the announcement of his award at the ERWoW annual conference in Yakima […]

New “Spill” Mandates and the Upcoming Impact to our Electricity Rates

March 2018- “Spill” is quite literally the water that is spilled through massive gates that are raised at our federal hydropower dams. The spill is designed to help young salmon migrate quicker and easier downstream from the rivers to the ocean. Due to a ruling after two decades of litigation from fish advocates, Judge Simon […]

Why We Need to Revisit Bonneville’s Residential Exchange Program

March 2017- PUD 1 receives its power from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) which runs the hydroelectric system in the Northwest. Back in the mid-1990’s the federal government passed a new energy bill which gave some of the benefits of the hydro system back to investor-owned utilities (IOUs) like Puget Sound Energy. The IOUs complained that […]

Nation’s First Carbon Tax?

March, 2016- When I opened this morning’s paper the headline read, “Washington Considers Nation’s First Carbon Tax.”  At a recent Washington PUD Association meeting we discussed the various carbon reduction policies that are currently in play in Olympia as well as Washington DC.  There are multiple policies that could impact our cost of providing reliable […]