REGION
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
City will examine water management,
how to keep up with growing need
Top users of water
in Hermiston are
mostly residential
Photo contributed by Athena Volunteer Fire Department
Firefi ghters extinguished a power pole fi re Monday
night in Athena.
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
As Hermiston grows, so
will its need for water.
The city will update its
water system master plan
this year for the fi rst time
since 1996, and city leaders
are optimistic that because
of a unique partnership it
will be able to keep up with
increasing demand.
“We are lucky that we
had some visionary leaders
come before us,” said
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan. “The city is
the co-owner of a regional
water system with the Port
of Umatilla.”
The city has not met the
projected growth outlined in
the current master plan and
will begin an update in a
few weeks to see if there’s a
point at which growth would
become unfeasible because
of a strain on the current
system.
“It’s good we haven’t
outgrown the system, but we
want to update it and see if
we need additional storage
capacity,” Morgan said.
The city’s geographical
makeup may provide some
hurdles.
“You look on the west side
of town, and there’s some
topographical changes,” he
said. “We’re not as hilly as
Pendleton, but the intake
supply where we suck the
water out of the river by the
port of Umatilla — there’s a
huge pump that essentially
shoves the water nine miles
up the hill.”
Morgan said transporting
that water and treating it can
be expensive, but having a
reliable backup is critical.
The existing regional
water system line the city
can tap into is on the south-
west side of town. The city
hopes to extend lines toward
the north and the east.
“Our goal is to ultimately
link the regional water
system at other points with
the municipal system,” he
said. “To bring in more
connection points would
really help our resiliency
in being able to provide
the city itself with water,
and reduce the price of the
regional water system.”
Power pole fi re causes
blackout in Athena
East Oregonian
EO Media Group fi le photo
In this 2015 fi le photo, Hermiston Foods General Manager Trent Waldern stands in
front of the business on Highway 395 in Hermiston. Hermiston Foods was the top
water user in the city in 2016, using 115 million gallons.
Top water users in Hermiston
Hermiston Foods-Norpac
Village Park Graceland Holdings
Good Shepherd Medical Center
Uma. Co. 4th Street Aspens
Viewcrest Apts
Chateaubri Park
Able Farms RV Park
Pioneer RV
Sundial Apartments
Uma. Co. Foxwood Homes
115,047,200
24,591,100
11,357,100
9,050,500
8,623,600
8,613,400
7,945,300
7,595,500
7,354,800
6,567,900
Total number gallons of water used in 2016
All told, the city used
1.54 billion gallons of water
in 2016. The top user was
Hermiston Foods-Norpac,
using 115 million gallons.
Following that was Village
Park Graceland Holdings at
24.6 million gallons and in
third was Good Shepherd
Medical Center, using 11.4
million gallons.
The other top users of
city water were all resi-
dential facilities, including
apartments, RV and mobile
home parks.
Trent
Waldern,
the
general manager of Herm-
iston Foods, said the level
of annual water use for the
company has been fairly
consistent over the years.
“It fl uctuates depending
on our crops,” he said. “This
year, we’ll probably have
lower use because our crops
are down. But we monitor it
pretty closely, and monitor
how many gallons we use
per fi nished product.”
Waldern said the company
monitors energy effi ciency
as well, and tries to look at
ways to curb consumption.
“We’re kind of looking
at conservation measures all
the time,” he said. “We look
at ways to get rid of equip-
ment or things that use more
water. It’s not always easy.
We had some bulk transport
fl umes, and we’ve taken
some of those out and gone
back to just using conveyor
belts.”
Doug Paine, the facilities
director at Good Shepherd,
said the number one use
of water for the hospital is
a cooling tower, which is
used to cool the air in the
building.
“It takes the heat out of
the building, and uses it to
evaporate water,” he said.
“That’s how we make the
building cool.”
Paine said the cooling
tower, which was introduced
a couple of years ago, is
more effi cient than other
types of air conditioners, but
it does take a lot of water.
“When things are going
full out, and it’s a hundred
degrees outside, it takes
10 to 15 gallons of water
a minute to maintain the
temperature in the hospital,”
he said.
He said the hospital is
held to certain specifi cations,
but tries to conserve water,
using low-fl ow toilets and
other fi xtures when possible.
Morgan said the way
rates are structured with
the regional water system,
the more gallons purchased
every year, the lower the
cost per gallon.
The city of Hermiston
recently set a new schedule
for increased water rates.
Fees went up by 5 percent
in March 2017, and will
increase by 5 percent in
October 2017 and 4.9
percent in March 2018.
Morgan said one of the
reasons for the rate increase
is that the city will replace all
water meters in the next six
months with a cellular-based
system.
“All the data the system
brings in will instantly get
sent to city hall,” he said.
Currently, two-thirds of the
city’s meters are read by
hand, so the new system will
free up employees who read
the meters to work on other
water system maintenance
projects, Morgan said.
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
Elfering talks economic development, specifi c projects
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Umatilla
County
Commissioner Bill Elfering
took the stage at a Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce
luncheon to discuss the state
of Umatilla County, particu-
larly some of the economic
development projects taking
shape in the next few months.
Some things to look for, he
said, will be the construction
of data centers and the arrival
of new businesses to the area.
Elfering said he and
County Planning Director
Tamra Mabbott have been
working
on
attracting
companies with the potential
to add lasting value to the
area.
“We focus on supporting
efforts to result in increased
jobs, or that bring an event
that enhances a community,”
Elfering said. “If there isn’t
some way it’s going to come
back and benefi t us, we’re
not really looking at it.”
He
discussed
some
“We focus on supporting efforts to result
in increased jobs, or that bring an event
that enhances a community. If there isn’t
some way it’s going to come back and
benefi t us, we’re not really looking at it.”
— Bill Elfering, Umatilla County Commissioner
projects that haven’t been
confi rmed yet, but which the
county hopes will work out.
One is “Project Red”
— an agricultural produce
facility.
“Eighty acres under a
greenhouse,” Elfering said.
“They want to hire 200
full-time employees and 120
seasonal employees.”
Elfering said the project is
not fi nalized, and he couldn’t
reveal who the company was.
He said they had approached
Umatilla County about
locating there because they
liked the inexpensive elec-
tricity, access to water and
sunshine. He said he couldn’t
give the specifi c location, but
it would be somewhere in
west Umatilla County.
Another new business he
anticipates is a “meadery,” or
a facility that produces mead,
an alcoholic beverage made
with honey.
“It’s quite small, and it’s
local people,” Elfering said.
He said the facility, which
also hasn’t been confi rmed
yet, would be located in the
Hermiston area as well.
He also mentioned the
Umatilla Army Depot, which
he said has received many
offers from businesses that
want to use the land. Unfor-
tunately, the land remains
in Army hands until the end
of the year at the earliest.
Elfering said that many of
the other previous issues,
like water and sewer access
at that property, have been
taken care of.
“Water is now available,”
he said. “The cities of Herm-
iston and Umatilla will take
on the sewer system.”
Elfering
mentioned
job-creating projects such as
the Ranch and Home store
and the data centers run
by Vadata, a subsidiary of
Amazon, which have been
approved for construction in
Umatilla County.
“They plan to have three
data center campuses in West
Umatilla County, and each
campus would have four
data centers,” Elfering said.
“It’s half a billion dollars
total per data center. We’re
looking at $6 billion worth of
infrastructure growth, and 40
to 60 jobs in each building.”
He said the addition of
those facilities would double
the value of Umatilla County.
He noted that the infl ux of
family-wage jobs would not
come without challenges.
“Housing is going to be
critical,” he said.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at 333 E. Main
St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-966-0818 with questions.
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Electric, water meters
to be replaced soon
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston
residents
will be getting new meters
to track their water and
electricity use beginning this
summer and fi nishing by
early next year.
The council previously
approved a contract to install
new remote-read water
meters, and on Monday
approved a contract with
Landis + Gyr Technology
for new electrical meters for
Hermiston Energy Services
that can also communicate
remotely.
The cost of the electrical
meters and their installation
was rolled into a bond
restructure that Hermiston
Energy Services completed
in 2016. Superintendent Nate
Rivera said it will replace
5,300 meters, including
4,700 residential ones.
The total cost for the
meters and installation
is $1,021,460. The city
received six proposals
from four vendors before
choosing Landis + Gyr.
Rivera said HES was able
to come up with some
signifi cant cost savings from
what was initially budgeted,
leaving
more
money
for other infrastructure
improvements the utility has
planned.
Installation of the new
electrical meters will begin
sometime in the fall and
wrap up late 2017 or early
2018. HES customers will
get a heads-up from the
utility about when theirs
will take place. Rivera said
the disruption to customers
should be minimal, as it only
takes seven to 15 minutes
to install each meter. After-
ward, customers will have
more detailed information
about their power usage
available and the utility
will not have to wait for
customers to call to know
that there is an outage in a
neighborhood.
Hermiston residents will
also be getting new water
meters in an unrelated
project taken on by the
city of Hermiston. The
water meters can also be
read remotely, allowing
the city to reassign the two
employees it uses to read
meters to other work, and
will create an online account
for each customer to track
their water usage in detail.
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Work to replace the water
meters will begin in July
and fi nish around the end of
September. It is being paid
for by the water rate increase
enacted in January and the
savings from not having
employees go out to read
meters. The new meters will
also be insulated.
On Monday the council
also approved an updated
franchise agreement with
Charter Communications.
Mark Morgan, the assistant
city manager, said the
agreement contains two
main changes from previous
agreements. The agreement
will last for seven years
instead of fi ve, and language
was added making it clear
the city has the option of
adding additional fees for
internet.
Currently Charter only
pays the 3 percent franchise
fee on sales of cable, not
internet, even though other
companies such as Eastern
Oregon
Telecom
and
Centurylink pay on internet.
Morgan said staff would like
to come back to the council
soon with an ordinance that
would apply the franchise
fee to internet, too, as more
and more people consume
television through that
medium instead of paying
for cable.
During
the
public
comment section at the
beginning of the council
meeting, Karen Primmer
asked that the city consider
changing the name of
Airport Way after Umatilla
County made the decision
to table a request to rename
East Airport Road. The two
similarly named roads near
each other continue to cause
confusion for people trying
to fi nd the Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center.
Drotzmann agreed that
he would like city staff to
consider a name change to
something like Municipal
Airport Way or Hermiston
Airport Way, but city
manager Byron Smith said
that the city “is not going
to take away the confusion
until we get rid of ‘airport’ in
one name.” Councilors said
solutions to the road name
issue was something they
would like to discuss again
at a later date.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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customers were without
electricity for several hours
Monday night in Athena
after a power pole caught
fi re, broke and collided with
other nearby power lines.
Firefi ghters with the
Athena Volunteer Fire
Department responded to
the scene at North Hunt and
Sherman streets at approx-
imately 9:18 p.m., but
were unable to extinguish
the blaze until crews from
Pacifi c Power could arrive
and turn off the electricity.
Fires in Pendleton and
Hermiston delayed their
arrival.
During the wait, the top
of the power pole broke and
caused a collision of wires
that resulted in the failure.
Power was restored around
midnight.
The East Umatilla Fire
Protection District, Helix
Fire and the Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Offi ce
provided mutual aid.
More
than
2,000
customers were without
power in Hermiston earlier
in the evening after a failure
at the Hat Rock substation.
The Morrow County
Sheriff’s Offi ce reported
the storm sparked fi res,
and its wind and 50-mph
gusts resulted in downed
trees, power poles and lines,
along with fi res, but there
were no reports of injuries.
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