Real Estate Guide Fall 2019
Tigers Football at Astoria Jamboree Page A7
Obituaries-A3 • Police Blotters-A3 • Opinions-A4 • Market Place-A6 • Public Notices-A6 • Sports-A7 • Back to school-A8
Friday, September 6, 2019
The Chief
$1 Vol. 128, No. 17 8 Pages
Serving the Lower Columbia Region since 1891
Partially treated Students head back to school sewage discharged in Clatskanie River Mechanical failure at wastewater treatment plant
The Clatskanie River viewed from Beaver Boat Ramp. CODY MANN headlightnews@countrymedia.net
A mechanical failure at the sewer plant in Clatskanie has led to partially treated wastewater discharges into the Clatskanie River on the west side of town. A statement released to the media by the City of Clatskanie Sunday, Sept. 1, said a sweep arm failed at the wastewater treatment plant and partially treated sewage is being intermittently discharged. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was notified of the situation and is advising city officials to help address the problem. City Manager Greg Hinkelman said it was the first time the sewer plant had suffered a failure of this nature. The breakdown in the secondary clarifier was discovered a few days prior to the statement’s release. A gearbox was initially suspected as the culprit and was replaced, but when the sweep arm was reactivated it still did not work. It’s now believed there was a gear failure related to the sweep arm’s worm drive. As the plant neared wastewater capacity over the weekend, it was decided that a discharge of partially treated sewage was necessary. DEQ also issued emergency permits for the City of Clatskanie to dump treated sludge from the secondary clarifier in a field that is already approved for that purpose. And the smaller primary clarifier at the plant was reacti-
Cody Mann/The Chief
vated to create additional capacity and for treatment purposes. The company that built the sweep arm is being brought in to determine the exact problem and rebuild the sweep arm. A new unit has been ordered for when the rebuilt arm needs replacing, possibly in a few years. The company’s arrival is slightly delayed by hurricane response efforts on the East Coast, the city manager said. Hinkelman said he expects another discharge to the river will be necessary in the coming days. He said it’s possible the discharge would be at or near compliance standards thanks to the relentless efforts of the public works director and crew at the wastewater treatment plant. He could not immediately say how much partially treated wastewater has been discharged. DEQ has not taken any action against the City of Clatskanie regarding the mechanical failure. Hinkelman praised the agency for its understanding of the issue. He emphasized that the discharges were partially treated and were not raw sewage and were caused by a malfunction rather than any negligence. During the Wednesday, Sept. 4, Clatskanie City Council meeting, Public Works Director Dave True said from Saturday through Monday there were intermittent discharges of effluent that did not meet permit standards. He said the broken-down clarifier was drained and inspected, and an alternate treatment method was temporarily established. “That sweep arm is probably the most important piece of mechanical equipment out at the plant” True said. “We’re not redundant, and that’s a problem because we can’t switch to one side to work on them, we just have to set up an alternative treatment scenario that will probably have to be manned 24-7.” The estimated cost to repair the mechanical failure is $60,000-$75,000. True said there are several funding options and suggested possibly dropping a paving improvement project or requesting a supplemental budget allotment. True said discharges would likely resume later this week and hopefully they will meet permit requirements. True and Hinkelman spoke highly of the work done by the public works crew, who have been scrambling since the mechanical failure was discovered. True said it’s possible the plant would be back up and running by next Thursday. Signage will be posted at the boat ramps in town to make the public aware of the potential health risk in the water. Exposure to sewage that has not been fully treated could cause a number of illnesses.
Photo: Jenelle Davis
Kinder twins Annie and Weston Davis ready for the first day of kindergarten in the 2019-2020 school year. Check A8 for submitted photos of north county students returning to classes for the new school year. More online at facebook.com/thechiefnews and thechiefnews.com.
Port approves NEXT Ground Lease
Christine Menges/The Chief
Port commissioners approve the lease at their port commission meeting, held at the Clatskanie Cultural Center. CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
The Port of Columbia County has approved the ground lease for NEXT. In a vote of three in favor and two opposed, at their Wednesday, Sept. 4 commission meeting, port commissioners approved a ground lease for NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon, LLC, a biofuels plant, to construct a biofuels facility at Port Westward. Port commissioners also approved a memorandum of agreement with NEXT, mandating the facility will not take advantage of any tax breaks from the Enterprise Zone where the facility is located, meaning they will pay property taxes from the beginning of operations. According to its website, NEXT Renewable Fuels turns recycled organic materials into renewable biofuels. Lou Soumas is the president and director of the company. Commissioners Larry Ericksen, Robert Keyser and Chris Iverson voted for the lease, while Commissioners Nancy Ward and Chip Bubl voted against. “The port has, as I can see, no dollars at risk,” Commissioner Key-
ser said. He added that if the project with NEXT did not work out, NEXT would still have to pay their rent per the terms of their lease. “If they leave, we will have a pot of money to decide how to move on and market the property to the next [tenant],” Keyser said. Not all port commissioners agreed with Keyser, Iverson and Ericksen. Commissioner Bubl voted against the lease and read out a list of 12 concerns to support his vote. He listed concerns about the financial backing of the project including a lack of knowledge surrounding affiliates of the project, a lack of documentation from private lenders and an absence of a deadline for financial support to be in place. He also said he thought an 80-year lease was too long. Additionally, Bubl mentioned concerns about the construction of the facility resulting in road problems as well as the location of the facility being in an earthquake-prone area. Bubl listed his final concern as being a lack of funds to cover damages in the event of an oil spill. Commissioner Ward supported her vote against the lease by saying she thought the risk was too high. “We have taken risks at Port Westward in the past and they have
proven not to be as attractive as we had hoped they would be, and sometimes proven to be a total failure,” Ward said. Ward then referred to Commissioner Keyser’s past comment that he gave the project a 51 percent chance of survival, saying, “When we have a commissioner who wants this project more than any of us on the board saying that he gives it a 50/50 chance of surviving, I think that is too big a risk to take.” Some port commissioners responded to Bubl’s and Ward’s comments and concerns. Iverson said a lot of Bubl’s concerns were due to him being a new commissioner. “If we approve this ground lease, [Soumas] still has a thousand hoops to jump through,” Iverson said. “There’s every regulatory agency in our state and our federal government that he would have to comply with that are much more versed at these types of things than the five of us sitting up here.” Iverson re-stated he was confident in his approval of the lease. “I think we’ve done more due diligence on this project than we’ve ever done with anybody,” Iverson said.
See NEXT Page A2