PRRHansen 7292 FW: For EQC: citizen comments regarding Molalla

From: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany

Sent: Thu Jan 11 17:25:28 2018

To: Susan Hansen

Subject: PRRHansen 7292 FW: For EQC: citizen comments regarding Molalla

Importance: Normal

This is one of two emails I am sending I response to this request

Tiffany Yelton Bram

WQ Source Control Manager

Northwest Regional Office

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

700 NE Multnomah St., Suite #600

Portland OR 97232

Desk 503 229 5219

Mobile 503 975 0046

From: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany

Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 5:08 PM

To: CALDERA Stephanie <caldera.stephanie@deq.state.or.us>

Cc: DECONCINI Nina <DECONCINI.Nina@deq.state.or.us>

Subject: For EQC: citizen comments regarding Molalla

Hi Stephanie

I responded to the three people I received email from related to Molalla. You were cc’d on the original email and my response. If you brief the EQC on this, I offer the following:

Staff at DEQ in NW region WQ have been following our enforcement guidance and acting on violations of the NPDES permit issued to Molalla as they come up. Recent violations will be addressed in the Mutual Agreement and Order we have been working on with the city. The MAO has been on a pause while the city explored issues of modifying the current plant or building an entirely new sewage treatment plant. They, of their own accord, hired a consultant, Dale Richwine, to do this analysis them. The city asked DEQ to pause on further negotiation of the MAO while the consultant did their analysis and wrote their report. DEQ agreed. The city wanted to see the outcome of the analysis and brief their Mayor and City Council prior to sharing the report with us as it was anticipated that the city would have a large cost associated with whatever action was recommended by the consultant and they wanted to be the ones to brief their elected officials. Since the release of the report, DEQ and the city have set a meeting on December 18 to discuss the next steps on the MAO. The city specifically requests Director Whitman’s attendance at this meeting, so scheduling was influenced by the availability of all of the parties. In the meantime, the city has already begun the planning process for developing a plan for the sewage treatment plant and DEQ will attend project meetings to assure that the plan meets our requirements. The city intends to have the plan not only comply with DEQ requirements but also be a Sewer Master Plan as required by DLCD.

Stephanie, if you anticipate questions that the EQC might ask in response to my summary above or the content of the emails themselves, please let me know and I’ll make sure we are prepared to respond.

Thanks!