Project History
Plan coming into sharper focus after years of study
The Capacity Management Program is the outcome of many years studying the sewage treatment needs of the community and, more recently, reviewing work done by the Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) for CCSD#1.
Since the CAC presented its recommendations in late 2006, the County’s Water Environment Services (WES) department has developed a Phase 1 action plan. The Capacity Management Plan incorporates pieces of the CAC’s concepts.
CCSD#1’s Kellogg Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant – opened in 1975 – is operating beyond its design capacity. The district also is utilizing capacity at the Tri-City Wastewater Treatment Plant, built in 1986 by the Tri-City Service District.
The CAC studied the long-term needs for CCSD#1 in 2006 and recommended the following major actions in its Report to the County Commissioners.
Address near-term needs to eliminate potential restriction to additional development within CCSD#1. The CAC intends for the following four actions to be done concurrently:
- Resolve the ammonia limit;
- Restore Kellogg Creek treatment capacity; and
- Continue the temporary diversion to Tri-City.
- Site and build a new treatment plant to provide long-term treatment capacity for CCSD#1.
Decommission the Kellogg Creek Plant sometime in the future, but only when it makes economic sense to do so to enable CCSD#1 to achieve long-term regulatory and economic efficiencies.
Please see recommendations in Phase 1 and Phase 2 for an update on the Capacity Management Program’s action steps.
Consequences of not acting
“There are a couple of reasons why Clackamas County should meet the water quality standards and why it’s necessary,” says Dale Richwine, consulting engineer with Montgomery Watson Harza (MWH), who helped run the Tri-City plant when it opened in the 1980s.
“First of all, the primary issue in wastewater treatment is to protect public health. You need to deal with the wastewater in a way that you can ensure that the public health is protected,” he says.
“Then second, you’re discharging to a tremendous fishery in the Willamette River. You really need to ensure that the water quality of the Willamette doesn’t deteriorate so that you can maintain the fisheries and this wonderful livability that we have in this area.”
Richwine adds: “A fine is one repercussion if a [clean water] standard’s not met, but a little more can happen. Additional issues include a potential building moratorium. If you’re not able to meet the criteria, DEQ [Oregon Department of Environmental Quality] can put a building moratorium on the county. That has happened in other counties in the past.”
“In fact, in the early ‘70s that’s how Clean Water Services [Washington County] was formed. There was a building moratorium. They were formed to build new plants so that they could get past that stage in their development,” Richwine concludes.
