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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2019)
january17 2019 free VERNONIA’S volume13 issue2 reflecting the spirit of our community City of Vernonia Completes Wastewater Treatment Upgrade After almost 30 years of being out of compliance with DEQ standards, City’s new innovative wastewater treatment upgrade project is now complete By Scott Laird The citizens of Vernonia have a lot to be thankful for now that their newly upgrad- ed wastewater treatment facility is complete and operational. After decades of promises and false starts, the City now has a wastewater system that will meet Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) standards, a system that will cost ratepayers just a fraction of the original cost estimates. The pioneering project, which in- cludes two separate features which are con- sidered pilot projects in the State of Oregon, was completed under-budget with a total cost that was significantly less than the original estimates that said the project could cost Ver- nonia citizens as much as $30 million. According to City Finance Direc- tor Angie Handegard, the total cost for the project, including design, was $11.9 million, with the City receiving a $2.2 million grant from the United Stated Department of Agri- culture (USDA) towards construction of the project. The new system has now been ful- ly operational since November. The proj- ect was a collaboration between City staff, members of the City Council, and members of the citizen’s Public Works Committee, along with staff from several state agencies. Among those who deserve credit for working diligently to explore and approve innovative options, tightly manage the project and keep costs down, and find creative financial solu- tions, are City Administrator Josette Mitchell, Finance Director Handegard, Public Works Foreman Jeff Burch, and Ben Fousek from the City Planning Department; City Council members Bruce McNair, Jill Hult, Mike Sea- ger, Susan Wagner, and Mario Leonetti along with other members of past Councils; and Public Works Committee volunteers George Tice, Sam Potter, and Dale Webb. “I was involved in the whole pro- cess,” said Webb, who was recently elected to the City Council after serving on the Pub- lic Works Committee. “I think the citizens need to know this was a really well done project, coming in just a little under budget. Our City Administrator did a real good job holding our contractor’s feet to the fire. We have a good facility now.” “A lot of time and effort was put into this by our staff and by past members of Council, and by the Public Works Com- mittee, all of them citizens of Vernonia” said Councilor McNair. “We had people in there fighting all the time to keep the costs down. Everybody can be very proud of the people that were involved in this. I know I certainly am.” Members of the City’s Public Works Committee and members of the City Council took a tour of the facility on December 29 with City Administrator Mitchell and Public Works Foreman Burch to view the upgrades to the system and learn about how the system operates and functions. The system the City has been using for the last several decades has been out of compliance with DEQ because of the high temperature of the system’s treated water during summer months. “The reason we had to do this proj- ect was because we were not allowed to dis- charge any treated water from our plant into the Nehalem River between April 15 and October 15,” explains Mitchell. “We had to store it for six months until October, so we had a storage problem.” The completed system includes a se- ries of new components: • a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system, and Disc Filter system • a series of 48 Bio-Dome units • a Hyporheic Discharge system • monitoring wells between the drain fields and river Both the Bio-Domes and the A. Wastewater is pumped to the Headworks from 3 pump stations located around Vernonia. B. Wastewater enters Lagoon 1, taking approximately 2 days to move towards Lagoon 2. C. Wastewater enters Lagoon 2, taking approximately 2 days to move towards Lagoon 3. D. Wastewater is contacted with chlorine as it is moved from Lagoon 2 through the chlorine contact chamber and released into Lagoon 3. E. Wastewater enters Lagoon 3, as it moves toward the outfall the chlorine dissipates, once the water reaches Bio-Domes chlorine is gone and beneficial bacteria living in Bio-Domes digest ammonia that is contained in the treated wastewater. F. In winter months (October to April) treated wastewater is discharged into the Nehalem River. G. In summer months (April to October), treated wastewater is pumped through the DAF and Disk Filter. H. The DAF and Disk Filter further the polishing of the treated wastewater for discharge into the Hyporheic Discharge pipes. I. Treated wastewater is then pumped into underground Hyporheic Discharge pipes and uses drain fields as a natural filtration system to clean and cool the effluent before it enters into the water table. continued on page 9 VHS Seniors Complete Senior Projects inside 3 10 12 eleanor roosevelt: across a barrier of fear boosters need more involvement vhs winter sports report Vernonia High School 12 th graders recently completed their Ca- reer Related Learning Experience, also known as the Senior Project. This is a requirement for graduation, and is one of the most interesting portions of their school experience. This year the Senior Projects were presented on Wednesday, January 9. The Senior Project requires students to submit a written Letter of Intent ex- plaining the goals of their project, then spend at least 20 hours of hands-on ex- perience with a project mentor. They also create a display board explaining their project, and then make a presen- tation of an eight to ten minute speech in front of a small panel of community judges, where the students explain what they learned during their project. The purpose of the Senior Project is for students to demonstrate skills they have learned throughout high school such as communicating, planning, follow-through, working with others, meet- ing deadlines, working to set standards, and challeng- ing themselves to learn new things. Here is a small sam- ple of some of this year’s Se- nior Projects: Shay Shepherd explored a career as a software quality as- surance (QA) engineer. Shay learned how QA techs try to find bugs, errors, and glitches, and try to break a software program. Shay also learned the process QAs use to log and docu- ment their work. Shay says QA techs need to be able to think both globally and locally, be able to talk with people, use critical and rational thinking skills, be adaptable, understand a number of computer languages, and have funda- mental knowledge of math, science, economics, and computer skills. Elizabeth Brewer spent time work- ing at Jack’s Hobo Bakery in Vernonia where she learned about running the re- tail part of the shop, baking techniques, and decorating Christmas cookies. She said she didn’t get to learn about baking breads because Jack is pretty secretive about that process. She said it was a continued on page 11
