Ethan Hoagland
Members of the Sweet Home community will have a chance to bring their concerns directly to the Army Corps of Engineers in a town hall meeting next Monday, Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. The announcement was made during a city council meeting held on Monday, Nov. 13 where councilors discussed the Green Peter drawdown’s impacts on Sweet Home’s water quality.
During the meeting, City Manager Kelcey Young pointed out that usually this time of year, turbidity (cloudiness of the water) measures 40 NTU. This Autumn, the city has seen averages between 100 and 400 NTU, according to Young. They’re also using more chlorine than usual to keep up, Young said.
Sweet Home’s water treatment facility is now cycling through all three of its large sand filters to keep up with the extra sediment pouring into Foster Lake from the drawn down Green Peter Reservoir, Public Works Director Greg Springman said. Under usual circumstances, he said the city only needs to cycle between one or two to meet the demand with less sediment removal.
As a result of the concerns from the community and strain on city staff, Sweet Home’s city council passed a resolution to “Declare a Continuous Commitment to Water Quality.” On top of reiterating their ongoing commitment to safe water quality, the resolution affirms the city will explore “legal action to protect its natural amenities.” It also enshrines the city’s commitment to work with the Army Corps of Engineers, the state and Linn County commissioners in finding a solution.
“If this is going to impact us this much each year, we’re going to need to look at getting a new filtration system,” City Manager Kelcey Young said. Another possible solution is for the Army Corps of Engineers to not draw down the water so low, according to Young. She said she had just gotten out of a meeting with USACE about the issue Monday morning.
USACE officials said of that meeting that they’re learning more about the impacts of the drawdown on Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany. They said they “monitor the turbidity of the water upstream of Sweet Home’s water treatment facility” and provide that data to the city of Sweet Home.
With additional strain on city employees and facilities, community members also became anxious about their utility rates rising.
“We’re not planning on giving any type of increased rates,” Young said. “We’re also tracking those rates to see if there’s other agencies or other things that can cover our costs.”
On top of additional effort at the water treatment plant, city employees have been going out into the community, testing people’s water and talking to them about how the treatment process works. Young and Springman said they’re testing the chlorine in people’s water, checking for bacteria like E. coli and more. They said so far, those tests are coming back within safe parameters, even though some residents are complaining about a swimming pool smell coming off their water.
The low, muddy water and large numbers of dead fish are also hitting Sweet Home’s economy. City officials say the drawdown has led to an “approximately 10% loss in revenue” for local businesses.
Tensions between city officials and the public simmered last week on social media. A post late Thursday on the city’s official Facebook page garnered hundreds of comments after taking a stern tone about maintaining respectful debate. That post was modified hours later, and city officials apologized for the tone. City Manager Young followed up with a post of her own, where she sympathized with the community’s concerns and mentioned the city is working on installing a new water filter. She also reiterated that current testing shows no bacteria in the water. City officials are posting weekly water quality updates on their Facebook page and website.
Water levels at the Green Peter Reservoir are hitting their lowest point this month, per the plan laid out by USACE. In a May press release announcing the start of the drawdown, the Corps acknowledged they might need to refine the drawdown plans in the future, but potential modifications are currently restricted by the injunction from the court. The Corps plans to start filling the Green Peter and Lookout Point Reservoirs to “normal winter flood risk elevations” on Dec. 16 to “offset the deep drawdowns’ impact to reservoir levels.” Normally, the reservoirs start to fill at the beginning of February. They expect normal levels for the summer, before the next drawdown begins Fall 2024.