NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Union adds a chapter to a Flag Day tradition
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION — The city of
Union’s name is linked to
a 1863 Fourth of July cele-
bration during the height of
the Civil War, when a sea of
homemade American flags
were displayed in town.
Fast-forward 159 years to
Tuesday, June 14, where about
a dozen military veterans in
Union also were embracing
America’s symbol of freedom.
The veterans were doing
so in a more solemn fashion,
retiring at least 100 aging
American flags in a morn-
ing ceremony conducted
by members of Veterans of
Foreign Wars High Valley
Post 4060 and American
Legion Post 43. The retire-
ment ceremony was one of
many taking place throughout
the United States on June 14
as part of an annual Flag Day
tradition.
“We are paying respect for
the American flag,” Walter
Richard, a member of VFW
High Valley Post 4060, said.
All of the flags retired were
burned at the conclusion of the
retirement ceremony while
adhering to the U.S. Flag
Code.
The retired flags had flown
many places, including ceme-
teries, post offices and the
homes of veterans. A number
also had served as casket flags
Dick Mason/The Observer
Veterans prepare to fire blanks with rifles as part of a flag
retirement ceremony on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at the VFW
High Valley Post 4060 in Union.
Dick Mason/The Observer
Mark Plank, left, and Dave Jensen, right, prepare to retire a flag on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at
a special ceremony at Union’s VFW High Valley Post 4060.
given to VFW High Valley
Post 4060 and American
Legion Post 43 were set aside
to be passed on to a local
funeral home that puts flags
in with veterans who are
cremated.
The annual retirement
ceremony was once conducted
on alternate years in La
Grande at American Legion
Post 43 and at High Valley
VFW Post 4060 in Union. It
is now always held in Union
partly because the American
Legion Post in La Grande is
near railroad tracks and the
noise made by passing trains
at the funerals of veterans. The
latter were particularly mean-
ingful to the veterans pres-
ent, including Mark Plank, a
member of VFW High Valley
Post 4060.
“We are honoring those
who have fallen before us,”
Plank said.
Many of the flags retired
had flown in the Grande
Ronde Valley where strong
winds cause them to wear out
faster.
“The problem is that people
leave them up during bad
weather,” Richard said.
Some of the aging flags
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Breezy with sun
and clouds
Cloudy with winds
subsiding
Partly sunny and
pleasant
Partly sunny and
beautiful
Sunshine and
pleasant
67° 52°
70° 53°
made it hard for people to hear,
Richard said.
Veterans with VFW High
Valley Post 4060 and Amer-
ican Legion Post 43 collect
tattered, torn and soiled flags
each year for the June 14
retirement ceremony.
Anyone with an American
flag that needs to be retired is
encouraged to give it to the
veterans groups since this
guarantees it will be treated
with care as it is retired.
A drop box for flags will
soon be put outside of the meet-
ing hall of High Valley Post
4060, 518 N. Main St., Union.
Baker City is no longer piping
wastewater into Powder River
By SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
73° 54°
80° 55°
80° 59°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
72° 54°
75° 56°
78° 54°
83° 60°
84° 62°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
61/54
55/45
68/46
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
63/51
Lewiston
63/51
72/56
Astoria
60/52
Pullman
Yakima 67/51
63/50
62/52
Portland
Hermiston
63/53
The Dalles 72/54
Salem
Corvallis
64/47
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
59/46
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
65/49
58/43
58/40
Ontario
73/50
Caldwell
Burns
74°
54°
82°
53°
106° (1961) 40° (1949)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
64/48
Trace
1.58"
0.46"
7.37"
2.46"
4.84"
WINDS (in mph)
73/49
59/36
0.01"
2.16"
0.80"
10.82"
4.29"
7.64"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 57/40
65/50
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
67/52
69/54
69°
53°
79°
52°
108° (1961) 40° (1932)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
62/49
Aberdeen
61/47
65/49
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
61/52
Today
Sun.
Boardman WSW 10-20
Pendleton WSW 10-20
Medford
68/49
WSW 8-16
WSW 10-20
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
58/33
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:05 a.m.
8:47 p.m.
12:15 a.m.
9:54 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
June 20
June 28
July 6
July 13
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 111° in Chandler, Ariz. Low 27° in Climax, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
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90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
BAKER CITY — For the
first time in more than 50 years,
Baker City no longer has to
discharge its treated wastewa-
ter into the Powder River north
of town.
The city had piped the
wastewater into the river from
its four treatment and storage
lagoons, about a mile north of
town, into the river since the
early 1960s.
The destination for that
water now is the new storage
pond the city had built last
year on a 51-acre parcel about
7 miles away, east of Interstate
84 and just south of Highway
203 at the eastern edge of Baker
Valley.
“Not finished, but we’re
definitely at a major milestone
here,” said Michelle Owen, the
city’s public works director.
“To me this is a huge milestone,
the fact that we’re no longer in
the river and we’re going into
our new storage pond.”
The old treatment lagoons
— the largest is about 70 acres,
and the three others are about
10 acres each — are connected
by a pipeline to the new storage
pond, which is much deeper —
about 20 feet compared with 6
to 8 feet — and thus has a larger
capacity.
The pipeline and new stor-
age pond are the major parts
of one of the city’s largest and
most expensive public works
projects in the past couple
decades, a $5.7 million job the
city undertook after the Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality mandated the city
eventually cease piping treated
wastewater into the Powder
River.
DEQ told city officials
that treated wastewater could
promote algae blooms and
otherwise pollute the river.
In 2017, the city entered into
a Mutual Agreement and Order
with DEQ.
The city previously added
chlorine to its wastewater to
kill bacteria, then used sulfur
dioxide to remove the chlorine
Circulation Dept.
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Michelle Owen/Contributed Photo
Baker City’s new treated wastewater storage pond is begin-
ning to fill. The pond is on the east side of Baker Valley, just
south of Highway 203.
before the water was released
into the river.
Owen said the city will
continue to use the lagoons to
temporarily store wastewa-
ter. Bacteria help break down
pollutants in the wastewater,
and solid material settles to the
bottom. Typically wastewa-
ter is stored in the lagoons for
about 30 days, although during
the winter, when the lagoons
are frozen, the city stores the
water longer.
Because the treated water
now will piped to the new
pond, and used to irrigate
non-food crops such as alfalfa
rather than discharged into the
river, the city no longer has to
add sulfur dioxide to remove
the chlorine, Owen said.
The chlorine will dissipate
naturally before it’s used for
irrigation, she said.
“We’re still treating waste-
water at the (old) lagoon and
it travels approximately seven
miles out to our new storage
pond,” Owen said.
The city is pumping about
three million gallons per day
to the new lagoon, Owen said.
Of that volume, about 1.2
million is the water that flows
each day from the city’s homes
and businesses.
The rest is water that already
was stored in the lagoons.
Lowering the water levels
in the lagoons enables another
part of the multiyear project —
removing the sludge that has
accumulated during decades
at the lagoons.
That sludge has reduced
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the capacity of lagoons, Owen
said.
The city also will replace
valves in pipes that connect the
treatment lagoons.
“Those need to be replaced
as part of this project, so we
need to bring the water level
down so the contractor can
actually work on the struc-
tures,” Owen said.
Treated wastewater can
flow from the lagoons to the
new storage pond by gravity
alone. However, Owen said
there are pumps at both ends
of the pipeline. The pump at the
lagoons allows the city to move
a higher volume of wastewater
than by gravity alone. She said
the city is using that pump now
to accelerate the lowering of the
lagoons.
Water from the new storage
pond also will be used for irri-
gation, Owen said.
“We’re trying to get enough
water into the new pond so that
we can fire up those pumps
over there and make sure that
everything’s working and then
we’ll be able to go into land
application for irrigation,” she
said.
Testing for that will likely
occur within a week or two.
Owen estimated the city
will have a permit from DEQ
allowing irrigation by August
and is waiting for the pump
manufacturer to be available
to set that up. Owen also esti-
mated it will be around August
before the city has the paper-
work approved by DEQ to
begin irrigation.
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Dick Mason/The Observer
Dave Jensen adds a small flag to a fire during a retirement
ceremony outside High Valley VFW Post 4060 on Tuesday,
June 14, 2022, in Union. Jensen is a member of High Valley
VFW Post 4060 and American Legion Post 43.
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