3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018
Fee increase would pay for drinking water testing
A $1.8M bump
in state fees
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Under a pro-
posal from state health offi-
cials, most public water sys-
tems — from small housing
developments to bigger cities
serving thousands of residents
— may have to pay higher
monitoring fees to the state.
Officials are asking for a
$1.8 million bump in fees in
the state’s next two-year bud-
get to cover the costs of mon-
itoring public water systems,
an area they say has long been
underfunded at a risk to public
health and public trust in the
safety of drinking water.
“Smaller drinking water
systems in Oregon are vul-
nerable,” agency officials
wrote in their agency budget
request, which was submit-
ted for review by the gover-
nor’s office and the Legisla-
ture, which will hammer out
the final budget.
They say that lack of staff
and money is “jeopardizing
the program’s ability to fully
meet its mission.”
The
request
follows
renewed public interest in the
safety of Oregon’s drinking
water.
This summer, toxic algae at
Detroit Lake prevented vulner-
able groups, including people
with liver conditions, pregnant
women and young children,
from safely drinking Salem
city water.
The state regulates the
roughly 900 public water sys-
tems that fall between small,
private systems with fewer
than 10 customers and larger
systems subject to more strin-
gent federal Safe Drinking
Water Act standards.
The state wants to improve
monitoring of systems ranging
from the Aching Acres Mobile
Home Park in Oregon City,
serving six people, to the Big
Woods Water District in Rose-
burg, serving 20.
Together those small sys-
tems serve about 15,500 Ore-
gonians, according to state
data.
Those state-regulated sys-
tems aren’t inspected, but they
do have to test water samples
regularly.
About a fifth of those sys-
tems aren’t doing that, though,
said Jonathan Modie, Oregon
Health Authority spokesman.
“The
problem
with
state-regulated systems is that
we don’t have staff to ade-
Oregon Army National Guard
Oregon Army National Guard Spc. Joshua White and Andy Smetana, with the Salem Pub-
lic Works Department, conduct water distribution operations in Salem in June.
quately enforce the regulations
when a system stops submit-
ting required monitoring data,”
Modie wrote in an email. “We
also lack the staff to provide
technical assistance to systems
that need help.”
Quarterly monitoring
State-regulated systems are
required to monitor quarterly
for coliform bacteria, nitrate
annually, and arsenic at least
once.
The state receives more
than 180,000 lab analyses
from water systems every year,
and most of those are entered
manually into a state database.
That information is com-
pared to safe standards and if
a contamination is detected, an
email alert is sent to state or
county officials to investigate
the contamination.
The state also monitors sys-
tems subject to federal Safe
Drinking Water Act standards,
and inspects those every three
or five years; those systems
would also face fee increases
under the health authority’s
proposal.
The agency wants to charge
an annual fee based on the
number of connections the
water system has, regardless
of whether it is subject to regu-
lar inspections.
The money from the
increased fees would pay for
five jobs at the state drinking
water program. Local public
health authorities who do sur-
veys and respond to contami-
nation alerts would see 25 per-
cent more state money.
Even before the Salem
water crisis unfolded in May,
the state’s health agency has
been saying that the drink-
ing water services program
doesn’t have enough money.
Agency data shows that fed-
eral money to supervise public
water systems has stagnated
since 2014, hovering at about
$1.6 million annually.
David Emme, the health
authority’s drinking water ser-
Steve Putman
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DMD, FAGD
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shortens healing time. You can get
a burn from ice just like with heat,
so don’t leave it on for more than
20 minutes. Most problems get
better more quickly with ice. Heat
feels good, but may seriously
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as there is pain and/or swelling,
continue ice; it can be done as
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The layer of enamel may be thinner and
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Patrick Webb/Chinook Observer
SEAVIEW, Wash. — It’s up!
The Seaview sign is back in
its rightful place, two years after
a car accident damaged it so
badly it had to be removed.
And Nansen Malin, who led
the campaign to get it replaced,
is happy.
But she’s not taking much of
the credit — there is a list of peo-
ple to thank, proving commu-
nity projects are a team effort.
The old sign had been in
place at 38th Place for 16 years.
When it was hit by a vehicle two
years ago, Pacific County crews
had to remove it because the
damaged, termite-ridden struc-
ture was a hazard. That version
was one of many incarnations
greeting visitors to the Seaview
beach approach in the past 145
years.
As designs were consid-
ered for a new sign, the Colum-
bia Pacific Heritage Museum
The state agency said that
the money would step up
enforcement of the systems
that aren’t testing water for
health hazards.
The agency has already
received some additional
money for drinking water
issues in the current budget.
Last month, the Legis-
lature’s Emergency Board
approved an extra $160,450
for personnel costs in the
drinking
water
services
program.
“Colleagues, the issue
of contaminants in drinking
water in Salem was huge,”
said state Sen. Jackie Winters,
R-Salem, during the Emer-
gency Board meeting. “I’m
sure you’ve read a lot about it
and this will help the agency
in order to work on some of
those issues.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group, Pamplin Media
Group and Salem Reporter.
Q: How does sensitive
Q: I just got my
John Ramage, project manager, left, and Brett Malin, long-
time Seaview resident, are all smiles as they check over
the installation of the Seaview sign.
showed project supporters pho-
tos of earlier versions, some of
which were constructed from
whale bones or driftwood.
Malin and members of the
Seaview Historical Preserva-
tion Society decided replacing
it was a priority. Getting that
accomplished took two years
because of the need to raise
funds and create a new design
that met changed government
requirements.
For her project manager,
Malin recruited John Ramage, a
civil engineer who had retired to
Seaview. He embraced the con-
cept, led the planning and pro-
vided the technical expertise to
make it happen, Malin said.
Together they brought archi-
tect David Jensen on board. Jen-
sen, whose grandparents lived
close to the sign decades ago,
worked through design con-
cepts, engineering requirements
and safety regulations. “He
helped us refine the design to fit
‘Historic Seaview,’” Malin said.
Better enforcement
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Chinook Observer
much for us, so if there was
a fee, it wouldn’t be a good
thing from my point of view,”
Sargent said.
Consult a
Astoria’s Best.com
In Seaview, the sign
points to teamwork
vices program manager, said
in a January newsletter that
the program “has been on a bit
of a roller coaster over the last
decade.”
The program lost a third
of its staff since 2009 due to a
lack of money, Emme wrote.
“The strain on our staff,
managers and county part-
ners is noticeable and we can’t
continue this erosion,” Emme
wrote. “While we all recog-
nize the need to prioritize and
adapt to limited resources, we
also need a sustainable base
program.”
Bruce Sargent, owner of
the Buckhorn Springs Resort
in the Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument in south-
ern Oregon, said he doesn’t
have an issue with what he
says is a monthly cost of about
$35 to test the water in the
resort’s system.
In the months that the
resort is open and operating,
he sends samples to a testing
company, which forwards the
samples to the state, Sargent
said.
Buckhorn’s system, which
serves 11 people, is regulated
by the state but isn’t inspected,
according to state data.
Sargent doesn’t want to
pay an additional fee for water
monitoring. Under the pro-
posal, systems like his would
have to hand over $75 to the
state every year.
“I don’t think they do very
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