News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
from Business Oregon, saw the
proposal as a “positive job-making
project.”
“The DEQ was glad to see John
Day looking at innovative ways to
handle wastewater management,”
Allison said.
Allison and Lohan said the DEQ
had well developed standards com-
pared to other states, which showed
that Oregon is prepared to see more
wastewater reclamation plants built
in the state.
There are several classes of re-
claimed water, but producing the
highest, Class A, would provide
the most options for reuse, Moore
said.
Class A water would be the bare
minimum for use in a greenhouse
growing produce for human con-
sumption, Lohan told the Eagle.
“The majority of use for re-
claimed water is industrial,” Lo-
han said.
The city will look for long-term
users, Green told the city council.
With all the timber mill closures,
Grant County has lost a lot of in-
dustrial demand, he said.
An aging plant
Human health risks
John Day’s wastewater collec-
tion system began in 1948, with
major additions in 1970 and 1978.
Since then, it has been expanded
several times and currently han-
dles up to 240,000 gallons per day,
or 87.6 million gallons per year.
The city contracted with An-
derson-Perry in 2008 to develop
a new wastewater facilities plan,
and the city council approved con-
struction of a new treatment plant
at the same site after reviewing the
plan.
Anderson-Perry estimated the
cost of the new plant in 2011 at
about $8.29 million, but accord-
ing to City Manager Nick Green’s
city council memo five years later,
several assumptions about the plan
no longer applied. The city’s popu-
lation had declined, and emerging
technology warranted an update to
the plan, he said. On top of that,
the DEQ did not issue a 10-year
discharge permit for the existing
wastewater treatment plant.
The plant “may be unable to
meet future permit requirements
for biochemical oxygen demand,
total suspended solids and chlorine
residuals,” Green said in an Oct.
14, 2016, application for a state
feasibility study grant. “Therefore,
water that is allowed to percolate
adjacent to the John Day River has
the potential at times to degrade
the water quality of the river.”
The city was awarded the
$50,000 grant, which will help
fund a feasibility study estimated
to cost about $110,000.
Potential contaminants in re-
claimed water include microbial
pathogens, heavy metals and “con-
taminants of emerging concern” —
trace constituents from household
products such as caffeine, insect
repellent or cleaning chemicals,
from personal use products such as
antibacterial soap and toothpaste
and from pharmaceuticals such as
antibiotics.
A 2012 study by the National
Research Council found that the
risk of exposure to certain mi-
crobial or chemical contaminants
from drinking reclaimed water
did not appear to be any higher
than the risk found in some mu-
nicipal drinking water treatment
plants.
Allison noted that drinking wa-
ter systems in many U.S. cities
routinely use river water down-
stream from another city’s waste-
water treatment plant’s discharge
pipe. In any case, John Day has no
plans to use its reclaimed water for
drinking water.
Water quality sampling is con-
ducted five times a week for Class
A water, Allison told the Eagle.
But design of the John Day facil-
ity will depend upon the big pic-
ture, and what kinds of uses can
be found for the city’s reclaimed
water.
“Part of our challenge is to
look at the project holistically —
what are the most economical first
steps?” Allison said.
Lohan said it was possible
ground-breaking for the new plant
could take place in 2020-2021, and
the plant could complete commis-
sioning and be fully operational
by 2022. At that point, the cur-
rent treatment plant could be shut
down.
WATER
Continued from Page A1
New type of
treatment
Allison said a rough figure he’d
heard for a new John Day waste-
Contributed photo
A cutaway diagram from Sustainable Water of Richmond, Virginia,
of a facility with four reactors using plants to reclaim wastewater.
water treatment plant was around
$10 million. A more exact figure
depended upon what level of treat-
ment was expected and how the
reclaimed water would be used, he
said.
He
estimated
that
a
10,000-square-foot facility could
handle John Day’s needs, with
much of it enclosed in glass.
Wastewater would run from one
“reactor” to another — open-
topped tanks with a plant rack
on top. Wastewater to be treated
would only contact the roots of the
plants.
Each reactor would be different,
and the building would resemble a
botanical garden. Sustainable Wa-
ter’s facilities have attracted more
than a thousand tours, Allison said.
Among the plants that would be
grown in the reactors include the
umbrella plant (cyperus alternifo-
lius), lilies from the canna species,
taro (colocasia esculenta) and ele-
phant ear (alocasia odora), Lohan
said. These plants are not for con-
sumption, but they require month-
ly harvesting as they grow quickly,
he said.
Wastewater would first en-
counter a mechanical self-clean-
ing screen to remove nonfecal
solids and then go to two outdoor
reactors. The partially treated
water would then go to two re-
actors in the greenhouse portion
of the plant, followed by filtra-
tion to remove bacterial bio-
mass that had accumulated in the
process.
Request tabled
Reclaimed
water uses
While reclaimed water can be
used to cool the treatment plant
in summer, heat from the incom-
ing wastewater would be used
to warm the facility in winter. In
addition to a generator for emer-
gencies, the plant would have
backup electric or gas-fired heat-
ers to keep the plant warm on cold
winter days.
But some demand for reclaimed
water will cease during winter,
including irrigation for farms or
parkland and industrial uses from
businesses such as Malheur Lum-
ber. As a result, a storage reservoir
might be needed to hold treated
water in winter. A ballpark figure
of 20 acres 7-feet deep was men-
tioned at the city council’s Nov. 14
meeting.
Jim Hamsher also thanked
Mobley for his request.
“Kudos to Zach for get-
ting Sheriff Palmer to agree
on this,” Myers said.
Frances Preston asked the
court to disregard any poli-
tics brought up at the meet-
ing and focus on the request
as proposed by Mobley.
Billy Jo George called
some of the comments about
Sheriff Palmer “overly
harsh.”
“To say that he does not
participate with the Forest
Service is a stretch,” she
said.
Jim Sproul told the court
that Mobley represented the
sheriff’s office and politics
should not be introduced
into this discussion.
Beverlin said he appreci-
ated Mobley’s working with
Field and hoped that the
foundation of this interagen-
cy cooperation would grow.
Myers agreed with Brit-
ton that a decision on the
matter would be premature,
and the court unanimously ta-
bled Mobley’s request.
KIOSK
Continued from Page A1
websites that provide weather, traffic
and agency information. The idea of
the kiosk originated with former Forest
Service employee Cameron Sanders,
according to a Forest Service press re-
lease.
“Sanders’ efforts played a crucial
role in moving this project forward
and coordinating with the chamber
during the early stages of the proj-
ect,” the press release said.
Sanders, who no longer works
with the Forest Service, told the Ea-
gle he developed the kiosk and ap-
plied for and secured a grant for it.
He said he was happy to see the kiosk
up and running.
“I worked on a national pilot pro-
gram for digital kiosks for the Park
Service and the Forest Service for
years across the country and was
particularly proud of this model,” he
said.
The Blue Mountain Ranger Dis-
trict purchased the $7,149 kiosk
using a portion of funds from a di-
versity and inclusion grant provided
by the regional office in Portland,
Malheur National Forest spokesman
Mike Stearly told the Eagle. The ki-
osk was manufactured by I&E Co.,
which produces a wide range of au-
tomation products, including All-in-
One Touch stations and kiosks.
Stearly said, although the John
Day kiosk has some unique aspects, a
variety of similar kiosks are available
to Forest Service visitors across the
Pacific Northwest and the nation.
“We have made it a priority to try
and find ways to share information,
and with this kiosk we are hoping
that we will reach more people with-
in our community and our visitors,”
Blue Mountain District Ranger Dave
Halemeier said. “We look forward to
seeing how this develops.”
Future plans include providing
links on the kiosk screen to the cham-
ber’s website and Facebook page to
keep visitors informed about commu-
nity events and attractions. The For-
est Service is also considering selling
maps at the chamber office.
Former Chamber President Jerry
Franklin noted that the convenient
and visible location of the chamber’s
office on Main Street will benefit vis-
itors and residents.
“This chamber is looking forward
to a long-term relationship with the
forest and the valuable assets this
project will provide,” he said.
OPEN HOUSE
Saturday December 2nd, 11am - 5 pm
s
with $15,000 already budget-
ed by the sheriff’s office for
forest patrol, $5,000 from an
Oregon State Snowmobile
Association grant and $7,000
from the Forest Service for
forest patrols.
That last figure was not
correct, Beverlin told the Ea-
gle. The Forest Service had
agreed to provide $6,000 to
the sheriff’s office for assisting
with the Rainbow Gathering
this past summer.
Myers told the Eagle that
after the meeting Mobley spoke
to Capt. Bob Field, a Forest Ser-
vice law enforcement official
based in Pendleton, and was
told that the $6,000 in funding
for the Rainbow Gathering still
existed and was earmarked for
Grant County.
But Beverlin also told the
court that the Forest Service
contract with the sheriff’s of-
fice terminates at the end of the
year.
“There’s been no talk about
extending the contract because
the Rainbow event is over,” he
told the court.
Beverlin told the Eagle that
finding Forest Service funding
for a Grant County forest patrol
deputy may not be easy, espe-
cially in the near term because
budgets have already been
completed.
“We’re already working on
our fiscal year 2019 budget,” he
said.
da
m’
Continued from Page A1
Mobley told the court
the forest patrol deputy also
would serve as the search and
rescue coordinator, a posi-
tion he currently holds. The
part-time deputy would be
responsible for handling re-
imbursements as well as all
search and rescue training
and documentation, he said.
The sheriff’s office would
initially advertise the posi-
tion in-house, Mobley said,
and the person hired to fill
the position would undergo
the same level of training ex-
pected of a full-time deputy.
Mobley, who’s served as
undersheriff for about two
years, didn’t respond to the
issues raised by Beverlin.
“I can’t speak to things
that happened before I came
on,” he said.
Commissioner Boyd Brit-
ton thanked Mobley for “try-
ing to bridge a big gap” but
suggested approval of the
request would be “premature
now.”
Myers and Commissioner
Ny
PATROL
Lastly, devoid of nutrients, the
clean discharge water would be
disinfected in a two-step process
by ultraviolet light and chlorine to
ensure no regrowth of pathogens,
Lohan said.
The treatment plant would be
completely automated and con-
trolled using internet-based soft-
ware, Allison said. John Day’s
state-certified treatment plant op-
erator could run the plant, he said.
“The new plant will have less
overall operational costs than the
current plant, where crews are try-
ing to maintain aging equipment,”
Allison said.
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