TULALIP – A “Big Water Celebration” is scheduled Friday to honor completion of the $64 million Tulalip Water Pipeline Project.

The pipeline from Everett to Tulalip will provide a 100-year supply of water to the community.

The celebration will start at 1 p.m. at Quil Ceda Village across from Boom City. The public event includes a free salmon bake and water bottle.

The 7.5-mile-long pipeline goes to the reservation from near the U.S. Highway 2 bridge in Everett on the west side of the Snohomish River, north to 88th Street Northeast and 27th Avenue Northeast on the reservation.

It will provide a long-term supply of water to Tulalip, to Smith Island and possible stream flow augmentation. The celebration had been planned for October, but there have been delays. The cost is much less than the $85 million original 2007 estimate.

The pipeline will allow the tribes to develop more commercial land, serve its growing population and conserve important waterways. “We’re thinking of the future,” former tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon said previously about the project.

A decade ago, the tribes filed a $37 million legal claim against Everett, contending that city’s diversion dam built on the Sultan River had destroyed a salmon run. The good-faith efforts of the city on this project have done much to heal old wounds, Sheldon has said.