Community turns out to mark completion of new water plant

Published 10:55 pm Saturday, June 14, 2003

PENDLETON – The city’s new $12 million drinking water treatment plant had its grand opening Saturday, and the public was able to tour the facility, which already has been sending out water to local faucets.

“Most of you have already been drinking it, unknown to you, perhaps,” said Mayor Bob Ramig, at a dedication for the plant at City Hall.

Ramig made a toast to the new plant and the people who built it, clinking glasses of water with Jerry Odman, public works director, and Bill Burke, chairman of the Umatilla tribes water commission and Chief of the Walla Walla Tribe.

The city’s last man-made water filtration system was created in 1911, and designed to filter out small fish, Odman said.

Like that system, the new water filtration plant will be “an improvement that people will never regret,” Odman said, quoting a 1914 East Oregonian editorial.

The new plant will be able to process 6 million gallons of water a day, and filter out particles 1/100th the diameter of a human hair.

“It’s exceptionally clean water the plant will provide,” Odman said.

The facility’s membrane filtration technology is cutting edge, and the plant also will utilize aquifer storage and recovery.

When water is plenty in the wintertime, the plant will filter all drinking water for the city of Pendleton and send excess water to city wells.

In the summer, when water is more scarce, the water from the wells will be sent to residents.

The water filtration plant was created to bring the city in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, because the city had been using water from springs east of town for nearly a century.

While no contaminants have been found, the city was ordered to create a better filtration system in 1999.

Three 15 percent water bill increases starting in 1997 helped fund the cost of the plant.

Though the water filtration plant suffered a settling pond rupture May 15, that has been repaired, said Bob Patterson, the city’s project manager.

The rupture sent 400,000 gallons of water downhill, narrowly missed a trailer home and mucked up a trucking shop with several inches of mud.

Odman, who is retiring June 30, said the plant, a long-time goal of the city, was the culmination of his career.

The tribes worked with the city for a number of years on planning the plant, Burke said.

At least 60 to 70 people attended the dedication barbecue at City Hall, munching on free burgers and hot dogs.