FAQs
Sandy River Discharge Alternative
Even at the current population, the City’s current treatment facility has issues treating the water during heavy rainfall events. In order to properly protect human health and the environment, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has mandated that improvements are needed, which includes increasing the capacity of the treatment system.
For the last 20 years, the City has been able to deliver all of our treated wastewater to a local nursery between May 1st and October 31st for irrigation. However, the City still produces treated wastewater in the winter when irrigation is not possible. As part of the detailed discharge alternatives evaluation, the city conducted outreach and studied options for providing the treated water to other large property owners and agricultural users.
The permitting process is quite extensive and is aimed at maintaining high water quality. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality would be responsible for issuing a permit to discharge the Sandy River, and they require a number of studies and engineering evaluations. The City’s consulting engineers have already conducted water quality studies of the current river flows and a geomorphology study and fisheries biology evaluations to determine the most stable location of the river for an outfall. DEQ would require additional studies such as a mixing zone study, an “antidegradation” study to evaluate any impacts to the river, groundwater quality sampling and analysis, additional geotechnical investigations, and wetlands delineations prior to issuing a permit.
