JOHN DAY – Engineers for the City of John Day are developing options for building a new wastewater treatment plant to serve the city.

City Manager Peggy Gray said last week that the council hasn’t selected a design or moved forward with any final decisions yet. However, La Grande-based Anderson Perry and Associates is working on proposals for the new plant and will present them to the council sometime late in October or early November, she said.

The John Day City Council voted unanimously on Aug. 26 to proceed with planning for a new wastewater treatment facility.

The council reviewed three alternatives presented by senior engineer Troy Baker of Anderson Perry at that meeting.

The council previously hired Anderson Perry and Associates to assist in evaluating the city’s existing wastewater treatment facility and potential improvements. Anderson Perry’s study cost the city $38,620, with $20,000 of that coming from a grant from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.

As outlined by Baker, the three choices were:

? Alternative A – Do no work to improve the current facility nor build a new facility.

? Alternative B – Upgrade the existing facility to improve treatment function.

? Alternative C – Build a new treatment facility at the same site as the current facility.

Officials said Alternative A would cost the city no additional money, but would leave the city with a wastewater treatment facility that is outdated. The current facility was built 30 years ago with an expected design life of 20 years before replacement or upgrade was expected to be necessary, according to Baker.

Upgrading the current plant was estimated to cost about $8 million. The upgrades would improve and expand the function of the current facility. However, that alternative would raise an issue of what to do with wastewater while the plant was offline during construction.

Councilor Jack Grubbs said the concrete and piping under the existing plant is 30 years old and was unsure if an upgrade would be worth the expense due to unseen problems.

The final choice – building a new facility – is expected to cost approximately $8.5 million, regardless of the technology or treatment options the city chooses in the end. Baker said building a new plant would improve treatment levels, allow more flexibility to deal with changing state and federal regulations and would cost near the same as upgrading the existing plant. The construction of the new plant would also allow the current plant to stay operational during construction and make the transition smoother.

Baker said that one disadvantage to a new plant would be that the public works employees would have to learn a new process.

Gray said the similar costs for building new or upgrading the existing plant helped the council reach its decision.

“The costs were pretty much the same so it’d be kind of crazy to upgrade the facility,” Gray said. “There’s concerns with the pipes under the concrete that are 30 years old, and it makes more sense to build a new plant.”

The city has not decided on a final plan for paying for the project. Rate increases would be needed to help pay for the work, but Baker said the majority of the funds would likely be obtained through loans and grants from the Department of Environmental Quality’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund or USDA Rural Development Funds.