Have a drink on Tim Smith

Published 2:57 pm Tuesday, December 1, 2009

PENDLETON – For Tim Smith, silence is usually welcome – it means everything in his job is working the way it’s supposed to.

“If my computer doesn’t call me and I?don’t hear from anybody,”?Smith said, “then that’s a good thing.”

Smith is one of the people in charge of Pendleton’s water system. As control systems manager, he keeps watch over the city’s water supply from the time it’s drawn out of the Umatilla River and pumped into the water treatment facility on the east end of town, to when it comes out of residents’ faucets and flows out of the wastewater treatment plant on the other side of town.

Smith offered a tour of the seven-year-old water treatment facility this week, where he spends some of his days. He began in a sort of control room, pointing out monitors that display water levels for each of the city’s eight reservoirs, plus its wells and the condition of the rest of the system.

In its early stages, the city’s drinking water looks less than appealing. Once pumped into the facility, an added chemical bunches water “organics”?together so they can be more easily removed later. But until that happens, the water churns in a holding tank with a dark green hue – more green than when it comes in.

Water comes out clean once it’s gone through tiny filters on the way to people’s homes and businesses. The facility hums year-round.

“The plant kind of runs itself,”?Smith said. “I just keep everything working the way it’s supposed to.”

November and December is a slow time for water treatment. At its peak the facility might send 6 million gallons a day through its equipment. Now that’s closer to 2 million. But once the Umatilla River rises this winter and spring, the operation will crank up to store water for the hot, dry Eastern Oregon summer ahead.

Smith spends much of his time outside the treatment plant on Goad Road. He’s also involved with the wastewater treatment plant – currently gearing up for a multi-million dollar upgrade – and various odds and ends around the system.

“It’s something different all the time,”?Smith said. “It’s kind of whatever comes up.”

Smith first moved to Pendleton as a child in the 1970s. But his impact on the community since then goes beyond a clean glass of water. He’s also helped lead a group of volunteers in improving and rebuilding some of Pendleton’s youth destinations, including the Little League and Babe Ruth baseball parks. Among those projects was a batting cage installed near the Babe Ruth park last year, Smith said. Volunteers did the physical labor themselves.

“I think it’s about the kids,”?Smith said. “I think the city’s done a great job of supporting its kids.”