From: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany

Sent: Thu Jan 11 17:27:37 2018

To: Susan Hansen

Subject: FW: Mollala water problems

Importance: Normal

This is the second of two emails in response to PRRHansen 7292. Stephanie told me that this would be included with my other email to the EQC

From: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany

Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 8:37 AM

To: 'barbara stross' <bcstross@hotmail.com>; YELTON-BRAM Tiffany <tiffany.yelton-bram@state.or.us>; "DECONCINI Nina" <nina.deconcini@state.or.us>; "Richard Whitman" <richard.whitman@state.or.us>; "BACHMAN Jeff" <jeff.bachman@state.or.us>; CALDERA Stephanie <caldera.stephanie@deq.state.or.us>

Subject: RE: Mollala water problems

Dear Ms. Stross,

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns. I want to share a little background with you about what has happened with the city of Molalla and what we are doing about it. I also want to let you know that the city of Molalla has not discharged any untreated wastewater into the Molalla River.

The city of Molalla’s sewage treatment plant needs to meet pollutant limits set in the wastewater discharge permit issued by DEQ to the city. This permit allows them to treat the sewage and discharge it to the Molalla River in the winter time and treat and then reuse the wastewater for irrigating fields approved by DEQ in the summer time. In the past few years, the city has run into two kinds of problems in meeting this permit. The first kind of problem is having adequate capacity to hold treated wastewater when it is not possible to irrigate but also not possible to discharge to the river. This happens when we have rainy weather in late Spring and early Summer or have rainy weather in October. When the city runs out of capacity to hold the treated wastewater and the fields are too wet to irrigate, they have to discharge the treated wastewater to the river to avoid damage to the lagoon. The two lagoons that the city uses are above ground with earthen walls and those walls would be severely damaged if the wastewater breached the top of the lagoon.

The second kind of problem is meeting the limits in the permit for two pollutants, total suspended solids and turbidity. These are two different measures of a similar thing. After sewage has been treated to break down the bacteria and other pollutants, the solid material settles out. This becomes biosolids and is further treated and used as a soil amendment. The water portion is allowed to settle and then is filtered to keep the fine floating particles (which are what total suspended solids and turbidity measure) before if it’s applied to land for irrigation or discharged to the river. Recently, the city has had difficulty in meeting the limits for turbidity (how we measure these fine particles in water reused for irrigation) and total suspended solids (how we measure the particles when the wastewater is discharged to the river).

The problems of capacity and controlling the fine, floating particulates are being addressed through creating a plan for a new sewage treatment plant. The city is recognizing that between growth and weather conditions, the current plant does not have the capacity needed to meet the conditions we set in the permit. A new plant is big project so we are working with the city to assure that they develop a plan in a timely manner and construct a new plant that meets the current and future needs of the community.

Please know that there have been occasions (August of 2007 and May of 2015) when the sewage treatment plant had a significant equipment failure and wastewater that was not fully treated was released to Bear Creek, which is adjacent to the sewage treatment plant. This was corrected by repairing and replacing equipment.

You mention water supply in your message. DEQ is not working with the city on drinking water supply issues. If you have questions or concerns about the city’s ability to supply drinking water that meets drinking water standards, the Oregon Health Authority could assist you with those questions. Let me know if you have further questions for me or would like to have a contact person at the Health Authority to speak to about the city’s drinking water.

Sincerely,

Tiffany Yelton Bram

WQ Source Control Manager

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

700 NE Multnomah St., Suite #600

Portland OR 97232

Desk 503 229 5219

Mobile 503 975 0046

DEQ has a new website! Please update your bookmarks and check out the new site here: http://www.oregon.gov/deq/pages/index.aspx

From: barbara stross [mailto:bcstross@hotmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2017 6:00 PM

To: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany <tiffany.yelton-bram@state.or.us>; "DECONCINI Nina" <nina.deconcini@state.or.us>; "Richard Whitman" <richard.whitman@state.or.us>; "BACHMAN Jeff" <jeff.bachman@state.or.us>; CALDERA Stephanie <caldera.stephanie@deq.state.or.us>

Subject: Mollala water problems

Dear DEQ officials and EQC,

I was very concerned to hear that Mollala was still not in compliance with clean water standards, and was continuing to dump untreated waste even though they were clearly in violation of environmental quality standards.

While I do not live in Mollala, I visit there frequently, and in the past have enjoyed swimming in the river during the summer. As an older person, I feel that it is tremendously important to be able to depend on clean water, and to know that our fields and streams are not being contaminated with untreated or only partially treated waste.

Further building without maintaining the infrastructure to supply clean water to residents should be halted until Mollala's water supply and treatment meets current standards.

Thank you,

Barbara Stross

2939 S.E. 17th Avenue

Portland OR 97202