INDEX
Lyle alumnus Joey Nelson
models resilience — A3
Classifieds
B7-8
Gorge Local: In Business
A12
History
B6
Kidspace
B14
Obituaries
A7,9
Opinion
A4-5
Police Logs
B4
Public Notices
B9-11
Senior Living
B3
Sports
A13-15, B12-13
What's Happening
B5
Sports — A13-15, B12-13
Under Canvas hearing
delay — B12
Weather
Hot weather to stay awhile
- pack sunscreen. Marginal
to slight chance of thunder-
storms Tues. 108 on Sat.
HRVHS graduate headed to
Stanford on full ride
— A8
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 Volume 2, Issue 12
$1.00
Chlorine shortage
closes TD pool
Annie Jr.
Alana Lackner
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
Live theater returned to The Dalles over the weekend with performance of Annie Jr., presented by The Dalles Civic
Auditorium’s Civic Kids Spring production. Above, Annie (Tenley Taylor), at center stage, celebrates her adoption
Christmas with her fellow orphans and her adopted family. More photos online and B14. Additional performances are next
weekend, 7 p.m. June 25 and 2 p.m. June 27.
Photo courtesy Flora Gibson
Dalles, according to the Facebook
post, meaning their holding tank
is full, whereas the NWC Aquatic
Center was expecting their delivery
THE DALLES — The Northern
June 16. As such, their holding tank
Wasco County Aquatic Center
is empty. Additionally, the Hood
in The Dalles will be closed until
River pool is smaller and uses less
further notice pending a liquid
chlorine, according to the post.
chlorine delivery.
The closure of the NWC Aquatic
The Dalles is one of many
Center means that swimming les-
cities in the Pacific Northwest to
be affected by regional chlorine
sons and meets are canceled until
shortages. According to a post on
further notice. As dates of lessons
the NWC Aquatic Center Facebook arrive, the aquatic center will issue
page, the liquid chlorine manu-
refunds, but is holding off in case
supplies arrive before start dates.
facturer they use experienced an
The center has been able to
explosion on June 1. According to
a press release by Northern Wasco schedule some deliveries from
County Parks and Recreation, this sources such as janitorial supply
disruption in chlorine production companies, according to the post.
However, it will not be as much as
has caused suppliers to ration
they would usually get, so they plan
their stock, which means cancel-
to reserve opening for weekends
ing deliveries to services that are
considered “non-essential,” such as and the hottest days of the summer.
According to the post, NWC
swimming pools.
Currently, the pool in Hood River Parks and Recreation has no
estimate of when they will receive
is still open. This is because they
another full shipment of chlorine.
just received a delivery before be-
ing cut off at the same time as The
Second solar farm planned
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
complete by the planning depart-
ment, but said she has “all the info I
need to start the review process.”
Aurora Solar obtained land
Aurora Solar is planning for
development of a second solar farm leases with private landowners
and Washington Department of
in the Bickleton area of Klickitat
Natural Resources on a 1,728-acre
County.
tract of land between Bickleton
According to an application
and Roosevelt, according to the
submitted through the Klickitat
application. A portion of the leased
County Planning Department, the
subsidiary of Portland-based ener- land overlaps with the Big Horn
gy company Avangrid Renewables Wind Facility, owned by another
Avangrid subsidiary. According to
is proposing the construction of a
100-megawatt solar energy facility, the application, current use of the
titled Bluebird Solar Project, within land includes agriculture, range-
the county’s Energy Overlay Zone
land, undeveloped open space, and
(EOZ).
wind energy facilities.
Klickitat County Planning
The application reveals that the
Director Mo-chi Lindblad empha- company is planning for use of
sized that the application, obtained 1,638 acres of the land to install an
array of solar panels, inverters, a
by Columbia Gorge News, has
collector substation, access roads,
not yet been reviewed or deemed
and a transmission line connecting
the substation to an existing line
at the Big Horn Wind Facility. The
company plans to review wheth-
er the project site would require
installation of a maintenance
building or if they could use an
existing structure on the Big Horn
Wind Facility site, according to the
application.
Through connection of the
transmission line between the
proposed energy facility and an
adjacent existing wind facility, the
project would supply its output to
the larger energy grid through a
Bonneville Power Administration-
owned switchyard near the project
area, the applicants note.
According to the application, 12
homeowners live within three miles
of the proposed project, including
one a mile away from the project
site.
Because of the proposed project
site’s location within the coun-
ty’s EOZ, the applicant would be
required to either provide infor-
mation required in an expanded
checklist or undergo an environ-
mental impact statement, such as
site-specific studies for impacts re-
lating to habitat and wildlife, roads,
cultural resources, and grading and
stormwater management.
A SEPA (State Environmental
Policy Act) checklist would also be
required under state law.
The county planning director
would be responsible for approval
or denial of the EOZ application,
under county code, and has the
See SOLAR, page 6
Wastewater improvements near completion
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
BINGEN — The Bingen
Wastewater Treatment Plant im-
provement project is nearly com-
plete, with about a month to go on
the rest of the updates planned for
the plant, which services the cities
of Bingen and White Salmon.
Approved last year, the improve-
ments include the addition of a few
components, as well as replace-
ments and maintenance of old
components which have degraded
over decades of use.
“This is a good thing for both
Bingen and White Salmon,” said
Bingen Mayor Betty Barnes. The
improvements should allow for
20 years of use into the future and
expand capacity for future gradual
growth in the two cities.
Crews from TEK Construction,
Inc., are preparing to install the
remaining pieces of the improve-
ments project, such as a recircula-
tion pump, which would complete
the addition of what is called a
bio-selector, an instrument that
will help to control the process of
mixing bacteria into the wastewa-
ter within the oxidation ditch — a
large, racetrack looking structure
that mixes sludge with the waste-
water. Within the sludge is oxy-
gen-starved bacteria, which, when
mixed in with wastewater, feast on
the oxygen found in the wastewater
delivered to the plant. The process,
known as aeration, provides for
rapid growth of the bacteria and
allows for an easier and more thor-
ough separation of the water and
the bacteria as they get run through
clarifiers.
Warm
Springs
fire at 0%
containment
Alana Lackner
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
WARM SPRINGS — A fire burn-
ing on the Warm Springs reser-
vation is currently at 0% contain-
ment and had burned 6,200 acres
as of press time on Monday.
According to a press release
from the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs, dry conditions,
high temperatures and high winds
could contribute to the spread of
the fire, dubbed S-503.
There is currently a level 2
“Get Ready” evacuation order for
Walters Corners and Pine Grove,
both in south Wasco County near
Highway 26, as well as residences
west of the intersection of Back
Walters Road and Kelly Springs,
which are at a level 3 “Go Now”
evacuation order as of Saturday.
Javin Dimmick, Warm Springs
Wildland Fire public information
officer, said that the weather has
provided challenges, especially as
temperatures rise and the humid-
ity drops, but they have received
more reinforcements in fighting
the fire. “We are continually
getting more resources in, which is
good,” he said.
The fire was initially report-
ed at 4:57 p.m. on Friday, June
18, Dimmick said. The cause of
the fire is unknown and under
investigation.
The official containment level
and size of the fire will be updated
at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily. Official
updates can be found on inciweb.
nwcg.gov, while both official and
community-provided updates can
be found on the Columbia Gorge
Wildland & Fire Information
Facebook Page.
Additional updates to this de-
veloping story will be available at
columbiagorgenews.com.
Treatment plant operator Tom Hons stands outside his office at the Bingen Wastewater Treatment Plant on Marina Way.
The plant, he said, "works not only for treating sewage, but for treating people."
Jacob Bertram photo
Once the water is separated from
the solids, it then runs through a
disinfection process done through
ultraviolet light shining through the
water, and then runs off into the
Columbia River.
The solids are collected and
stored in tanks where they enter a
drying process that lasts between
three and four months, culminat-
ing in a nitrogen compound that
is collected and spread in a field in
central Klickitat County.
“The water we send out to the
river is really, very clean,” plant
operator Tom Hons said in an inter-
view last Friday.
Hons, along with fellow opera-
tor James “Buck” Buckland, have
worked to ensure operation of the
plant runs 24 hours a day.
At the end of the month, Hons
will be retiring from his job at the
plant, marking more than three de-
cades of working to ensure Bingen
and White Salmon’s wastewater
coming into the plant leaves in a
clean and pollutant-free fashion.
The improvements project marks
the second major upgrade he has
seen at the plant since his entry
into the field; in 1996, the Bingen
Wastewater Treatment Plant
upgraded its plant to include the
current larger oxidation ditch as
well as the UV disinfection compo-
nent, which replaced the previous
component that used chlorine to
clean the water — “much better for
the fish,” said Hons.
Along with the bio-selector,
most recent improvements to the
wastewater system include a more
See PROJECT, page 2
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