JOHN DAY — It is one thing to hear about something. It’s another to see it.

Five members of the John Day City Council got that opportunity Feb. 4, seeing firsthand the need for an updated and modern wastewater treatment plant during a tour of the existing plant, which is plagued with problems. Plant operator Dan Gabbard, who also serves as the John Day fire chief, fielded questions from councilors during the tour.

Gabbard has been certified to operate the plant for a mere three weeks, although he regularly filled in for former treatment plant operator Oren Wyss during a two-year period in anticipation of Wyss’ retirement.

“The last couple years I was doing Orrin’s job,” he said. “The only time he was doing it is when I was on vacation.”

The city’s sewer plant, on the north side of the John Day River near the western end of Seventh Street, serves about 2,400 residential, business and institutional customers within the urban growth boundaries of John Day and Canyon City.

Built in 1949, the plant received its last major upgrade in 1978 and is in a state of disrepair. The plant was last permitted in 2007; the plant’s age prevents the renewal of that permit.

Replacing the plant has been on the city’s agenda for more than a decade, but rising costs and environmental concerns have hampered progress.

Declining facilities, expensive fixes

While the treatment plant still functions, keeping it operating at full capacity can be challenging.

Many of the parts to keep the plant running are no longer manufactured, putting Gabbard in a tough spot.

“There’s always something that breaks,” he said.

Some parts that are manufactured carry price tags hefty enough that replacing them may not be in the best financial interests of the city.

One example is the treatment plant’s scum scraper, which helps remove floating solids such as fats, oil and grease from the surface of sedimentation tanks. That part is no longer manufactured, leaving Gabbard with the task of fabricating a replacement part.

There are roof leaks throughout the facility as well, with garbage cans placed to collect the water. In some cases, such as the chlorine storage room, tar-colored water streaks the wall, seeping from the digester, which breaks down the wastes coming into the plant.

Gabbard said the plant has had problems with its digester for some time, but diagnosing and fixing the problem is a costly endeavor.

The digester is accessible only via the plant’s roof. Opening the digester’s housing requires the use of a crane and costs in excess of $200,000, while replacing the unit itself could cost the city up to $1 million.

Gabbard identified the digester as the most difficult part to replace at the plant should it fail.

Refurbishing and upgrading the plant to fit modern code would be an expensive task as well. The civil engineering firm Anderson Perry in 2007 estimated the cost to update and upgrade the plant at just more than $8.5 million.

Gabbard said upgrading the 76-year-old plant to meet current standards is not feasible as the cost to do that work has risen significantly in the 18 years since the Anderson Perry study.

Initial cost estimates in 2017 for the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant were between $8 million and $12 million.

It’s not clear what the city would do if the plant fails before a new facility is built, but Gabbard said solutions could involve the daily trucking of hundreds of thousands of gallons of untreated wastewater to another site for treatment, at the city’s expense.

Top priority

The John Day City Council has said completing the new wastewater treatment plant is its top priority.

One of the newest councilors, Bradley Hale, got his first up-close look at the plant during the Feb. 4 tour. He said he’d heard rumors about the plant’s condition but wanted to get eyes on the site and make his own determination.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t get this done sooner,” Hale said. “It would’ve saved us a lot of money.”

In Hale’s opinion, the condition is due to a lack of maintenance over the years.

There are concerns that the new plant’s estimated price tag, which has now eclipsed $30 million, is much too high, but Hale said circumstances make the construction of a new plant a necessity.

“I would say that there’s a need due to the lack of functionality of certain things within the water treatment plant,” he said. “We can’t replace certain parts. We’re having to manufacture those parts on our own.”

Hale said he’d like to see the city complete the plant as soon as possible, before construction costs escalate more.