By JONI AUDEN LAND
Oregon Public Broadcasting

Two federal agencies have announced a significant allocation of funds to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs for a water treatment plant.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Indian Health Service announced last week that Warm Springs would receive a combined $23.8 million in money for the new treatment plant, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Once online, the plant will serve around 3,800 people living in Warm Springs, the EPA said in a news release.

A completion date is not yet set, although the design phase is expected to start next year.

“This is the largest tribal water system award in Region 10 and we’re proud to be a part of such a historic investment in our community,” EPA administrator Casey Sixkiller said in a written statement.

The EPA noted the new facility will continue to draw water from the Deschutes River.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have struggled for years with issues at their water treatment plant, which was built in the early 1980s. People who live on the reservation have faced frequent water outages before and during the pandemic, raising questions about public health safety. The aged water treatment facility also was forced to shut down temporarily last March following a fire, and has faced scrutiny from the EPA for violations.

Warm Springs Council Chairman Jonathan Smith said in the statement that the federal funding was a “historic investment,” that came as the result of partnerships between the tribe and federal agencies.

While the problems in maintaining the facility and treating the water have been documented for years, the large price tag for a new facility was a major barrier. Oregon lawmakers at times have provided smaller bundles of funding to fix immediate issues in Warm Springs, but a long-term solution has been evasive until Tuesday’s announcement.

The EPA stated much of the funding going to build the replacement facility will come from the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The post Tribe in Oregon to get $24M to replace faulty water facility appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — City leaders in Salem met with state legislators last week to discuss the earliest stages of funding an $80 million plan to fortify the city’s water system and ensure drinking water is free from harmful algal toxins.

The Statesman Journal reports the plan includes developing an ozone contact chamber to remove cyanotoxins, digging wells to provide a backup water supply and building berms to protect the treatment plant next to the North Santiam River from flooding.

Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett and Public Works Director Peter Fernandez said they will ask the state to help pay for the upgrades, though they have yet to present a proposal to legislative leaders and aren’t sure what form their request might take.

The need for cleaning out cyanotoxins and developing a backup water system became apparent to city officials last summer when Salem experienced a month-long drinking water crisis.

The post Salem seeks millions to improve drinking water system appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Reliance on state-of-the-art technology can lead to unforeseen costs, and the Eugene Water & Electric Board is paying the price.

EWEB opted for a $300,000 cutting-edge system to manage the wastewater generated at its new operations center. The innovative treatment system, which has been installed at a handful of facilities in Oregon, involves a delicate start-up period and ongoing maintenance, and some owners adapt to it more easily than others. Unanticipated levels of water usage contributed to EWEB’s decision to spend $55,000 to connect its facility’s pipes to Eugene’s conventional sewer system.

Ecological wastewater treatment, which uses microorganisms and living plants to clean wastewater, can drastically reduce water usage. And the innovation is growing in popularity as the technology advances. Both EWEB and the Port of Portland last year installed such living systems.

But while EWEB is still sorting out issues with the “Eco-Machine” at its Roosevelt Operations Center after one year of use, the Port of Portland’s “Living Machine” has been running smoothly, although it too required some tweaking.

“(The Eco-Machine) wasn’t really working as well as we had hoped,” said Lance Robertson, a spokesman for EWEB. “It took us a while to figure out what was preventing it from working as was planned.”

EWEB did not initially connect its operations center to the city’s sewer system, hoping that the Eco-Machine would handle all water treatment on-site. But the utility paid $30,000 to connect to the conventional sewer lines and $25,000 to add necessary system controls, according to Robertson. The center officially hooked up to the city sewer lines on Nov. 1, he said.

, the project’s general contractor/construction manager, also paid a small amount to connect the systems and was responsible for purchasing the meter, according to Robertson.

“The concept has very noble environmental goals,” said Larry Banks, principal at , the firm that designed EWEB’s operations center. “But the owner of the system does need to go in with their eyes open and understand the ongoing maintenance effort that a system like this requires.”

When nearly 300 employees at the Roosevelt Operations Center began moving into the facility in early winter 2010, cold weather prevented the Eco-Machine’s cultures from developing properly. Then, when workers from the facility’s maintenance shops washed their equipment throughout the winter, surges in water use overflowed the system.

“The term eco-machine implies something comes in on a truck and just works as if thousands are built in a factory,” Banks said. “It’s a bit of a misnomer. In hindsight, I wish we had more fully engaged operations and maintenance staff in discussions about maintaining the system during design.”

The Living Machine, a similar system installed at the Port of Portland’s headquarters, also endured a rocky start. The system, featured prominently in the lobby and at the building’s entrance, went into toxic shock after a couple of weeks of use at full occupancy.

The microorganisms that aid the cleaning process can handle only a limited amount of activity at first. When the building became fully operational in May, the system was overwhelmed by waste from 430 employees, and the plants started dying.

Unlike the EWEB facility, the Port of Portland’s headquarters was already hooked up to the city sewer system. When samples indicated that the system wasn’t functioning properly, the port diverted the water into Portland’s sewer system and started feeding the machine powdered milk to reintroduce the productive bacteria.

“It was a good lesson,” said Dan Gilkison, the port’s lead engineer for the headquarters project. “Now we control how much (wastewater) we put into the system at any given time so the machine sees a constant stream, which is what it likes.”

The system was back on pace after approximately two months and has since functioned smoothly, according to Gilkison. The Living Machine helps decrease water usage by approximately 75 percent in comparison to a similar-size office building.

The plants and organisms in EWEB’s Eco-Machine also have started to thrive, according to Robinson, and the system is still being monitored so that its effectiveness can be evaluated.

But some of the challenges both facilities faced can be traced to the fact that they introduced the technology into new buildings, which makes it difficult for designers to accurately predict the waste stream and water flows.

“In a brand new building, you can get surprised during the start-up – and you have to be prepared for that,” said Will Kirksey, a global development officer at , the corporation that provided the system for the port headquarters. “If you have an existing building, you can see what’s coming in so you know how to prepare the system.”

Despite the challenges, people involved with the projects stand behind the technology and expect to see more of these systems installed in the future.

Kirksey cited a Living Machine being developed at the new headquarters for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The wastewater system will be done in January, but construction crews will still be working on the building’s interior until the summer; by using the restroom in the interim, they will make the Living Machine more robust and better able to handle the transition into full occupancy.

“This is all a part of trying to be more sustainable and trying to do the right thing,” Robinson said. “Oftentimes there are these technical issues that get in the way of that. We’re glad we were able to figure it out and get the thing running.”

The post Green wastewater treatment systems don’t work as well as hoped appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

New pollutant disposal regulations, pending approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, could change the rules for companies that have been dumping waste into Oregon’s rivers and streams. Forestry, agriculture, construction and other activities may be affected.

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission last week approved new water quality standards to reduce pollutants in state waterways. The standards, five years in the making, are designed to protect tribal members along the Columbia River and others who eat large quantities of fish.

Presently, Oregon’s water quality criteria are based on the assumption that Oregonians consume approximately 17.5 grams – the national average – of fish per day. When the standards were passed in 2004, however, the EPA and tribal members contended that Oregonians who consumed much greater amounts of fish would be vulnerable to toxins left in local waters.

Under the new rules, the assumption is that Oregonians eat 175 grams of fish per day. The higher consumption standard reduces the allowable levels of 113 toxins, including methylmercury, which is widely known to harm humans who eat fish caught in contaminated waters.

If a facility cannot meet the standards, it might qualify for a variance, which would allow it to continue operating anyway, at least for a while. Larger facilities like major industrial pulp and paper plants, metal or refining plants, chemical manufacturing plants, and public water treatment plants are expected to trigger variance requests, according to Andrea Matzke, DEQ project manager for the water quality toxin criteria.

“Some facilities would qualify for a variance if the treatment technology is too expensive or not yet proven or if they need additional funding to put in treatment technology that would then allow them to meet water quality criteria,” Matzke said. “It gives them time to figure out ways they could meet water quality standards.”

After qualifying for a waiver, officials would have to develop a pollutant reduction plan that would be monitored by the DEQ.

The rules would take effect following EPA approval, which could happen as early as the fall.

The post Oregon DEQ approves new water quality standards  appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

CH2M Hill, a global design-build firm founded in Corvallis, has been selected as the preferred bidder to design, build and operate Wilsonville‘s proposed new wastewater treatment plant.

CH2M Hill and a team lead by Veolia Water of Pleasant Hill, Calif., both submitted proposals for the project in January, which was preliminarily estimated by the city to cost between $60 million and $70 million. City staffers evaluated the proposals with help from engineers as well as financial and legal advisers. While both proposals scored high marks, technical advantages gave the edge to the CH2M Hill team.

After reviewing the proposals, the city lowered the the cost estimate of the project to a figure less than $45 million. In addition to cost cutting efforts made by CH2M Hill, city staffers said low-cost financing and current low bid pricing also played into the project cost savings.

Negotiations with the preferred bidder will begin in May following further review of project financing options. A contract could be ready for the city council to review as early as July.

If negotiations are successful and a contract is signed, CH2M Hill would take over the operation of the current wastewater plant in September. Project design on the new plant would start later in the year, and construction is slated to be complete sometime in 2014.

A public open house is set for May 25, 6:30 p.m., at Wilsonville City Hall to further discuss the project and the design, build and operate concept.

The post CH2M Hill selected for wastewater plant project in Wilsonville appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A nutrient recovery system planned for a new wastewater treatment plant in Hillsboro is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Clean Water Services will begin construction on its Rock Creek-area plant this summer. When the facility opens in the fall, it will feature a commercial system manufactured by Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc.

Ostara’s systems remove nutrients from wastewater that are then turned into a commercial-grade, slow-release fertilizer.

The system that will be installed at the Rock Creek plant will recover 95 percent of the phosphorous and 20 percent of the ammonia found in liquid wastewater. The recovery process should produce about 1,200 tons of fertilizer every year.

Clean Water Services already has a similar, although smaller, Ostara system installed at a wastewater treatment plant in the Durham area. Once the Rock Creek plant is operating at full capacity, the output from the two facilities will make Clean Water Services the world’s largest producer of the fertilizer, which is sold on the market as Crystal Green.

The post Hillsboro plant will feature nutrient recovery system appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The city of Woodburn is looking to use chloramine to disinfect its water supply. The water is apparently purified and safe to drink, but keep finding their way into it. So, harmful? I guess not. But icky. Really icky. If I turned on my tap and got a fountain of flies, I’d call over a specialist to exorcise the demon out of my house.

The solution Woodburn is looking at is . Unlike chlorine, it’s supposed to be able to “inactivate” (RFP wording) midge fly larvae. The EPA for drinking, bathing, cooking whatever. But other groups, like the one in San Francisco who commented on the related Project of the Day, say it is largely untested and causes rashes or worse.

According to the (emphasis mine):

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that NO scientific studies on the skin or respiratory effects of chloramine have ever been conducted. Also the cancer studies on chloramine itself are so limited that they cannot be used to determine if chloramine, or any of its disinfection byproducts are carcinogens.

As far as skin and respiratory effects, the showering with chloramine-treated water poses “little risk” to health. Same with its use in humidifiers. But the EPA seems about skin abnormalities reported by people who use chloramine-treated water (The CCAC has ).�����ٲ� ties most problems to indoor swimming pools. The EPA, on their Web site, cities CDC studies, which were inconclusive.

This is what the EPA has to say about chloramine-related :

• Most of the research on the cancer risk of monochloramine comes from animal studies using mice and rats.
• EPA believes that available data support the use of monochloramine to protect public health.
• EPA’s regulatory standard for chloramines provides a wide margin of safety to offset any uncertainties in risk assessments.

A spokeswoman did point me to , which reads in Part II.A.2 that human carcinogenicity data is “inadequate.” It continues, “Numerous studies have attempted to assess the relationship between drinking water quality and cancer, however, these studies differ greatly in both their objectives and design, thus precluding specific inferences being drawn from their findings.”

I spoke with a couple of EPA spokespeople, but none could answer whether scientific studies on the skin or respiratory effects of chloramine have ever been conducted. They’d have to refer me to headquarters for that.

The post Chloramine – safe? appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The city of Woodburn is looking to use chloramine to disinfect its water supply. The water is apparently purified and safe to drink, but keep finding their way into it. So, harmful? I guess not. But icky. Really icky. If I turned on my tap and got a fountain of flies, I’d call over a specialist to exorcise the demon out of my house.

The solution Woodburn is looking at is . Unlike chlorine, it’s supposed to be able to “inactivate” (RFP wording) midge fly larvae. The EPA for drinking, bathing, cooking whatever. But other groups, like the one in San Francisco who commented on the related Project of the Day, say it is largely untested and causes rashes or worse.

According to the (emphasis mine):

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that NO scientific studies on the skin or respiratory effects of chloramine have ever been conducted. Also the cancer studies on chloramine itself are so limited that they cannot be used to determine if chloramine, or any of its disinfection byproducts are carcinogens.

As far as skin and respiratory effects, the showering with chloramine-treated water poses “little risk” to health. Same with its use in humidifiers. But the EPA seems about skin abnormalities reported by people who use chloramine-treated water (The CCAC has ).�����ٲ� ties most problems to indoor swimming pools. The EPA, on their Web site, cities CDC studies, which were inconclusive.

This is what the EPA has to say about chloramine-related :

• Most of the research on the cancer risk of monochloramine comes from animal studies using mice and rats.
• EPA believes that available data support the use of monochloramine to protect public health.
• EPA’s regulatory standard for chloramines provides a wide margin of safety to offset any uncertainties in risk assessments.

A spokeswoman did point me to , which reads in Part II.A.2 that human carcinogenicity data is “inadequate.” It continues, “Numerous studies have attempted to assess the relationship between drinking water quality and cancer, however, these studies differ greatly in both their objectives and design, thus precluding specific inferences being drawn from their findings.”

I spoke with a couple of EPA spokespeople, but none could answer whether scientific studies on the skin or respiratory effects of chloramine have ever been conducted. They’d have to refer me to headquarters for that.

The post Chloramine – safe? appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Five years after building a treatment plant at each of the city’s three wells, Woodburn officials are working on a new system to disinfect the water. The city released a request for proposals on Jan. 11.

Cities such as Woodburn that use groundwater typically don’t have the same contamination worries as those using surface water, said Dan Brown, the city’s public works director. That makes his job convincing the public that such a treatment system is necessary a little harder.

Residents ask why they need to put more money into water treatment just a few years after a $17 million upgrade. “They say, ‘We spent all this money on purifying groundwater;’ they’re saying ‘We don’t understand, Mr. Public Works Director, why we have to be disinfecting.'”

It’s true that Woodburn gets clean water from its wells, Brown said. The treatment system then removes iron and manganese from the water.

“The problem is you have very pure water as you pull it out of the wells and treat it,” Brown said, “but there’s no residual disinfection capability.” That means that any contaminant that gets into the water after it leaves the treatment plant could stay there.

Woodburn has 110 miles of water mains, some of which are more than 100 years old, Brown said. In 2007, midge flies got into this distribution pipeline.

City officials cleaned the system and sealed off entry points, but another infestation surfaced two years later. While midge flies don’t sicken people, Brown said, they’re never a welcome sight.

“When people see an organism in their drinking water, they freak out,” he said.

“As for a pathogen, they may not see it, but pathogens are a real concern.”

Woodburn’s system would use chloramine, a compound used as an alternative to traditional chlorine in disinfection. Chloramine stays in the water and even helps eliminate the film that builds up on the insides of pipes and storage tanks, Brown said.

San Francisco also uses a chloramine system, and Brown used that city as a model in Woodburn’s plans. In Oregon, Portland and Coos Bay also use chloramine.

San Francisco started using chloramine in 2004, after having used chlorine disinfection.

Treatment guidelines required the city to use a disinfectant that stayed in the water, said Andrew Degraca, water quality division director for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Before, utility workers needed to add chlorine at several points along the transmission lines.

“We had to reboost throughout the sytsem,” Degraca said. “Now we just put chloramine in the water and it’s more persistant.”

Chloramine also forms fewer byproducts, Degraca, and makes water taste less like a swimming pool. “You don’t want to have something too strong,” he said.

“No one wants to smell or taste that.”

Woodburn’s project, including construction, is expected to cost $800,000 to $1.3 million. Proposals to design the system are due Jan. 29, with a winning firm selected Feb. 12.

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer and last four months. Fortunately, Brown said, the treatment plants were built with room to grow, so contractors don’t need to build entirely new buildings.

“They had the foresight when they built these treatment facilities,” he said. “They provided sufficient room for putting in pumps and mixing tanks.”

The post Flies in Woodburn’s water prompt action appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.