Editor:
The Sweet Home City Council is about to make a decision about who will control Sweet Home’s waste water treatment plant.
As things are right now, the city of Sweet Home, under the rules and mandates of the Department of Environmental Quality, has total control and responsibility over the wastewater plant. The city also has a crew of maintenance workers who have operated and maintained this plant with the highest degree of expertise and professionalism.
There is not a problem with our wastewater treatment plant or the employees who operate it. The only re-occurring problem with Sweet Home’s wastewater management operation is during times of heavy rainfall. Call it any technical term you like, I&I, Inflow, Infiltration. What it really means is we have leaking pipes in the ground under our streets and houses.
When it rains, the rainwater leaks into our cracked and broken pipes and runs downhill to the wastewater plant. When the amount of rainwater exceeds plant capacity, the excess water with trace amounts of sewage is bypassed into Ames Creek and the city is in violation of DEQ mandates. The fix is obvious. Repair or replace the bad pipe, starting with the worst, and then continue to replace older deteriorating pipe at a manageable level.
The city does not need to fix all the leaks to reduce the rainwater flows to a level our plant can handle. The plant is not bad. The plant operators and supervisors are doing a superior job. Plant operational costs are well within budget.
If the city turns control of our wastewater plant to a professional management corporation, we, the city, will still be financially responsible for any violations due to rainwater inflow.
Also, the knowledgeable expert operators and superintendents the city now employs will go elsewhere to support their families. Once we lose these individuals there is no turning back.
The professional management corporation will make a profit and therefore be in control of costs. And the city will still retain responsibility to the DEQ for any rainwater bypass violations. It’s time to put our money in the ground and fix the problem.
Tim Riley
Sweet Home