Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The city of Sweet Home held a groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s new water treatment plant on June 4 on a former mill site off 47th Avenue.
The $8.6 million project was awarded last month to Pacific Excavation, Inc.
Joining councilors Rich Rowley, Greg Mahler and Jim Gourley; Mayor Craig Fentiman; City Manager Craig Martin; and Public Works Director Mike Adams in turning the first spades full of dirt were Jon Erwin and engineer Ryan Quigley of Erwin Consulting.
Also attending the ceremony was Brad Carlson, owner, and other representatives of Pacific Excavation.
Funding for the project is through state loans.
“This is probably the largest contract that we’ve awarded since I have been on the council,” said Fentiman, a 20-year veteran of the council.
“This is very exciting for us,” Fentiman said. “Plus we’re not going to get those notices in the mail anymore.”
The project has been on the boards since early in 1990s, Fentiman said. Nearly 11 years ago, the new city manager, Martin, walked in and asked what the city was going to do about its water treatment plant.
That’s about the time the city had to start sending notices out to water customers, Fentiman said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed the rules regulating chlorine contact time with drinking water, requiring a longer contact time before the water reaches the first customer on the line, across the street from the plant on Ninth Avenue.
The city’s water treatment plant was incapable of meeting the new contact time requirement, requiring the city to begin sending quarterly letters to all water customers, warning of a possible health hazard.
“It was on the drawing board and discussion phase when I got here,” Martin said. “Our current plant is well beyond its usable lifespan. It’s worn out.”
The city built the plant in the 1930s and remodeled it in the 1960s.
“I just really want to appreciate Mike (Adams), the tenacity dealing with the pipeline and Corps,” Martin said. “Just that alone would’ve been enough to drive me to lose what hair I have left.”
The city started the plant project in September 2006 with the installation of one 42-inch-diameter capacity raw water intake screen at Foster Reservoir, 600 feet of above-ground 24-inch pipe and 4,600 feet of buried 30-inch pipe to deliver water from the lake to the plant.
The new plant includes three separate systems that can produce up to 2 million gallons per day. On average, the city uses around 1 million gallons per day, less in the winter and as high as 2 million gallons during the summer.
The plant will include a 17,000-square-foot building, including three 1,400-gallon-per-minute filter units; clear wells; backwash ponds; a holding pond and pump station; 2,000 feet of raw water lines; 3,150 feet of finished water lines; a 24-foot access road system; 1,000 feet of storm drainage lines; and 1,000 feet of sewer lines.
The city is using the 5-acre property off 47th Avenue provided by Santiam River Development Company in exchange for the first right to purchase excess untreated water for its project, which is planned to include high-end homes in a natural setting. Santiam River Development would use the untreated water to fill its creeks and ponds, although the project is on hold until the secondary housing market turns around.