Service restored after Everett water main break forced business closures

Published 10:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026

EVERETT — A water main break along West Marine View Drive affected about a half dozen businesses along the city’s waterfront, city officials said.

Water was shut off for businesses located between the Grand Avenue pedestrian bridge and Naval Station Everett. A number of them, including Woods Coffee and the Sound2Summit taproom, were closed Wednesday morning due to the lack of running water.

The outage began around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, forcing the closure of a lane along West Marine View Drive. Public works crews worked through the night and as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, city officials said water service was restored to the affected businesses, less than 24 hours after the shutoff began.

To fix the pipe, the city shut the water off to the affected area before digging a trench to determine if the pipe needs to be either repaired or replaced, wrote Apryl Hynes, a public works department spokesperson, in an email Tuesday. Then workers repair or replace the pipe and test it to ensure it doesn’t leak. They then filled the trench and could restore water services, she wrote.

The city was able to repair the water main break while working overnight, officials wrote in a social media post, but discovered another issue and had to replace a gate valve on Wednesday morning.

It’s usually unclear why water mains break, a city website reads, though contributing factors could include the age of the pipe, the material used in it and the conditions of the soil around it.

From 2017 to 2022, about 23 water mains broke in the city per year, according to Everett data, lower than the national average.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.