8 MARCH 15,2007
Smoke Signals
Final Inspection For Grand Ronde's New Chlorination System
The potential danger of an accidental release of chlorine gas is finally resolved.
By Ron Karten
Tribal Engineer Eric Scott had
been having some extremely bad
dreams. They came in the form of
a cloud of chlorine gas, heavier than
air, floating off from the Tribe's
dated chlorination system behind
the post office in Grand Ronde,
across the field to the middle school
a couple hundred yards away and
to the Tribal housing units a couple
hundred yards from there.
"Chlorine gas, in the concentra
tion that would come from the
system, would kill everything in its
path," said Scott. Since 1994, when
Scott was working for the Tribe as
a consultant, he could not get that
image out of his mind.
On Monday, February 26, a new
system, using a liquid derivative
of chlorine gas called sodium hy
pochlorite, was installed to purify
Tribal and community wastewater
before flushing it into the Yamhill
River. All that was left of the
project was the final inspection
by the Independence-based design
firm Whitaker Engineering Inc.
and by the Indian Health Service
(IHS) that funded about half of the
$140,000 project.
The Tribe provided a $30,000
match and the Grand Ronde Sani
tary District provided $40,000 for
the project.
"Good job," said David A Engel
stad, P.E., District Engineer for
the Indian Health Service based
in Bremerton, Washington. "Nice
simple design."
The system treats all of the
waste water from Grand Ronde
with the exception of the new hous
ing development which has its own
plan, for treating wastewater.
During the winter, the system
will continually discharge cleaned
water into the Yamhill at the rate
of 120,000 gallons a day, but the
summer, much of the water will
be reused for irrigation and other
"gray water" uses rather than being
dumped into the river.
Although the new treatment is a
safer alternative to pure chlorine
gas, the Department of Environmen
tal Quality (DEQ) recommended a
second process be included to strip
the chlorine from the purified water
before sending it into the river.
In 2001, according to Scott,
the Tribe was awarded a grant
from the IHS for the design and
construction of repairs and im-.
provements to the Grand Ronde
Sanitary System. Along with re
pairs to the collection system, one
of the primary goals of the grant
v was to replace the gas chlorina
tion system. IHS pledged $30,000
towards the chlorination system
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Discussing the project in front of the completed chlorination facility are from
left, Brian A Vinson, P.E. Project Engineer for Whitaker Engineering Inc., Todd B.
Whitaker, P.E., President of the company, Tribal Engineer Eric Scott and at right,
David A. Engelstad, P.E., District Engineer for the Indian Health Service.
upgrades. Multiple projects to
repair the collection system were
completed, but the disinfection
system improvements were stalled
because DEQ insisted that the
Grand Ronde Sanitary District
construct dechlorination facilities
to eliminate chlorine toxicity in the
discharge.
Polk County finally agreed to con
sider making these improvements,
Scott reported.
"It's a big achievement for a
cooperative agreement with us,
the county and the Indian Health
Service," said Scott, fl
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On Tuesday, March
6, a group of Tribal
Elders including
Pearl Lyon (above)
and Cherie Butler
gathered in the Tribal
Community Center to
make "Damn-It" Dolls
for an upcoming Elder
celebration.
1 I