New Challenges: City faces fine, additional costs for sewer plant issues

This fine is a result of two incidents that happened within weeks of each other earlier this year, according to Clatskanie City Manager Greg Hinkelman.

"The sewer plant experienced failure of a seal within the clarifier that resulted in high levels of E.coli that were discharged into the Clatskanie River in January and March of this year," Hinkelman said.

Following the discharge, the city close the Clatskanie River and issued warnings to the public not to use the river on both occasions of the plant failure.

The failure of the seal also impacted other categories of reporting that showed elevated levels of Effluent limits; Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD’s) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS), according to the DEQ.

Hinkelman said the city conducted a thorough review of each failing and determined that excessive debris was getting into the treatment system, which was caused by issues with the debris removal system, also known as the headworks, that required adjustments to a screen-cleaning brush and the replacement of a gear box.

Party of the fix, included hiring a diver to go into the wastewater area of the plant to remove the debris from the seal.

"Other issues in procedures for maintenance were reviewed and corrective action was taken," Hinkelman said. “The corrective and maintenance measures we put into place last spring have been working well and we have not had a repeat of the incidents that happened last winter. Our continued focus is to operate the existing plant within its permit requirements as we move forward with building a new plant.”.

The plant is reaching the end of its service life, according to Hinkelman, and in September 2020 the city conducted a facility master plan assessment. Following the assessment Clatskanie was awarded grants to design a new plant and received $10 million from the Oregon Legislature to build the new sewer facility.

Preliminary design of the new plant, which will be constructed at the same location of the current facility at 100 NW 4th Street in Clatskanie, has been presented to the DEQ for approval before final design can be completed.

"If all goes well, the city hopes to have construction start in the summer of 2023," Hinkelman said, adding that there is now a new challenge in having the new plant build.

A city-commissioned report shows the soil where the new plant would be constructed shows liquefaction of the soil could occur during an earthquake, meaning that the ground would lose strength.

"If we build on the existing the ground, the plant would likely not survive an earthquake, so we have to shore up the ground so that the new plant can meet seismic requirements," he said. "That means that the costs to build the new sewer plant will increase by a few million dollars more for the construction."

Hinkelman said he plans to meet with Oregon legislators in January to lobby for the additional needed funding.