Attn: Willamette Sturgeon Fishers

[finclipped]

The greate state of Oregon has once again endangered the fishing public. Watch out if you are fishing sturgeon this weekend.

Portland workers forced to dump sewage into Willamette
08:11 AM PST on Friday, January 30, 2004
Associated Press
SALEM -- Recent heavy rain has forced the city to dump raw sewage into the Willamette River, officials said.
City workers opened diversion gates about 11 p.m. Wednesday after rainwater overloaded the city's sanitary sewer system. The city continued to divert diluted sewage into the river Thursday, said Eric Johnson, wastewater supervisor for the Public Works Department.
Warnings were posted urging people to avoid contact with the river because of potentially high levels of bacteria.
City officials will notify residents when the overflow has ended and bacteria levels return to normal.
The sanitary sewer system is entirely separate from stormwater drains. But sewage is diverted when rainwater gets into the sewer system -- through roof pipes in older houses that feed directly into it, through holes in manhole covers and through cracks in more than 660 miles of sewer pipes.
Salem has about six or seven raw sewage overflows each winter. The overflows typically total about 120 million to 160 million gallons, city records show.
So far this winter, about 72 million gallons has gone into the river, not including the latest release, said Paul Eckley, the public works operations manager.

[Lured In]

Of course no mention of fines or consequences. [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

[Rakkasan]

Like thay are going to fine the city for something that is out of there control

I am sure with the Willamette flow it will be gone before you know it.

[Hooker]

"So far this winter, about 72 million gallons has gone into the river, not including the latest release"

How can they get away with this?????

[ 01-30-2004, 09:14 AM: Message edited by: Hooker ]

[skein]

Maybe so, DSRods, but at times like this, I don't mind living UPstream. :shocked:

However, the fix is staggering, both in terms of engineering challenges and cost. I suspect they do a pretty good job when you think about what's stacked up against them (no pun intended).

Don't like to hear it though.

Skein

[Rakkasan]

Exactly.....I have a co-worker who is in the pollution and inspection part of the Coast Guard. It is funny because we were talking about this at work and other pollutants put into the rivers. Compared to the petroleum products dumped and spilled our sewers are the least of our worries. Yes tearing up all of our sewers to enlarge them would cost a bundle that tax payer I am sure do not want to for the bill for.

It is a drag though, but pretty much out of our control at this point. I am not one to complain unless I get off my *** and get involved in fixing the problem. However sometimes I open my big mouth and I am as guilty as others :grin:

[FishFreak]

If you look along front avenue and down on Swan Island ... you'll see signs of a major sewer overhaul projcet that has been going for over a year and will continue for several more years. The combined Sewage Overflows are being addressed by the city (thank you Mr tax payer). The cost is huge but well worth it for a city that is situated on such a beautiful river.
Next time you use the Swan Island boat ramp look at the informational poster on the project... it's pretty impressive (I'm sure these posters are to be found at other ramps as well).
You can also look at the following web site to get more information on the project:
http://www.cleanrivers-pdx.org/what_...cso_tunnel.htm
Having said all that.... I'd sure keep my mouth closed tight if swimming after a heavy rain

[Rakkasan]

Thanks fishfreak :smile:

[Hawg Caller]

FORCED? FORCED! they were FORCED! you got to be kidding me! how long will they be "FORCED" to dump. but if I wash my car they give me grief. This is STILL outragous.we can spend millions on defunct p.g.e. park but we cant fix a sewage problem? no wonder newberg pool is putting out "weird" fish.sorry for venting but this really p's me off. :whazzup:

[WaterDog]

Yeah, I guess they should have just put it in their pocket until the rain stopped.

[img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

[Herring Impaired]

Of course no mention of fines or consequences.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">And you won't either. I worked at a now closed chemical plant on the Willamette for 20 years, and if we took city water and dumped it to the outflows, we faced a fine for exceeding the free chlorine limit. Imagine that, having to treat the water that comes out of your tap to remove the free chlorine that the city put in.
I've never even heard of a "fine" and "sewage spill" mentioned together, until just now....

[TheRogue]

Originally posted by WaterDog:
Yeah, I guess they should have just put it in their pocket until the rain stopped.

[img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">

[Fishical Therapy]

When I moved to the Portland area 12 years ago I was surprised to hear of the CSO (combined sewer outflow) problems. While in college in Michigan I worked as an intern for the Legislative Service Bureau and we researched and wrote reports (non partisan) on various topics at the request of state legislators. This was in the mid to late '80s and we worked on a report regarding CSOs in the state of Michigan. I seem to remember that the city of Grand Rapids was under a situation where they were being fined for overflows and ordered (or thru an agressive fine system) to remedy the situation. They spent 10's of millions in 1980s dollars to build collection ponds where they could divert the overflows and then process them as the load on the system decreased.

Anyway, for a city and state the prides itself on its environmental awareness I am amazed that the old polluting, industrial mid-West is far ahead of the enlightened ones running the state of Oregon.

Fishical Therapy

[Jimmy Carl Black]

Ahh yes, the always-forward-thinking state of Michigan

[Riverkeeper]

As mentioned above, Portland and Salem both have sewage overflow problems. Back in the good old days, sewage systems were designed to discharge directly into the river. Portland didn't even have a sewage treatment plant until the sixties. The fact is, these older systems are way beyond capacity, and when it rains, one way or another water gets into the system and overwhelms it to the point that effluent has to be released or the city will blow up in a huge sewage explosion. Well, not exactly, but close. There is currently no alternative. But this has been going on for years.

If you are only now hearing about it, I understand your outrage. But please don't think that this phenomenon is "slipping under the radar". I can't speak for Salem, but Portland is (and has been for years) work on a MASSIVE infrastructure project to correct this problem- and getting PLENTY of oversight and help from DEQ, EPA, and other related agencies.

The fact is, you can't just "change out" a 100+ year old sewage pipe system underneath the entire city. So, Portland is currently tunneling to build a huge pipe that will run the length of the west side, and catch almost ALL the sewage from the west side of town. The pipe will cross 140' below the bed of the Willamette and end up at Swan Island as mentioned above. At Swan Island, an underground pump station the size of a downtown office building will pump sewage up to the top of the hill near the U of P, and it will then flow down to the treatment plant to be treated. A similar pipe will go in to serve the east side as well. This is a +/-20 year project that is costing hundreds of millions of dollars. So have faith, something IS being done, and the Willamette will be much cleaner as a result. Salem is working to update their system as well.

[blacktail519]

[img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] YUMMY [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] It's common practice anymore. I get tired of hearing about the overflow.

[fish_on]

This just off the news... The City of Portland on the average spills 2.7 BILLION gallons/year of sewage into the Willamette . Now that is a heck of a boneless brown trout run.

[ 01-30-2004, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: fish_on ]

[Pete]

A minor point that doesn't get the sewage out of the river ... the first post suggests that this was a Portland spill. The spill was acutally in Salem ... STORY

[ 01-30-2004, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[Beefcake]

We took the youngest kid to OMSI last weekend, and there was a pretty impressive display about this. The Swan Island pump project is predicted to cut CSO's to about 3 times a year instead of every time it rains. They have also added a push to clean up the Columbia slough (which is where all of the sewage went until the sixties). By 2011 (I think), the river should be clean :smile:

[fortywinks]

Good post RiverKeeper. This lengthy and costly undertaking has been well publicized in both the newspapers and local TV news. I can't believe there are citizens who are not aware of this project.

Just a few months ago they had coverage of the new, specially built boring machines brought in to do this work, and just in the last week the Oregonian had an article about how the EPA has been letting the state and city do their thing, but is now, suddenly, taking a more active interest in the project.

This is an extremely interesting engineering effort, and for a government project, seems to have been one that has up to now, been well run.

P.S. Maybe they can cap PGE Park and turn it into a holding tank for emergencies.

[Paddlefish]

Riverkeeper:

" . . . a huge sewage explosion . . . ?" You been reading too much Dave Barry tonight?

And, Fortywinks, I don't think that PGE Park would be necessary. The Rose Garden would proably be large enough, and -- goodness knows -- the Blazers certainly aren't filling it lately.

[Chacal]

MESSAGE FROM PORTLAND MAYOR VERA KRAPZ

Good citizens,

Since we have spent our money on paying our public employees for snow days, remodeling and bailing out a minor league baseball team and giving city money to the Portland School District we are short on funds to increase our sewer capacity.

We need you to use your Portland spirit and hold it until the rains are over sometime in June. We know this could be a challenge, but I think if we all cross our legs together we could save our rivers. If you REALLY need to go, please do what they do in Dignity Village -- just fertilize our parks, streets and sidewalks.

Thank you for your support, and remember to vote for Ballot Measure 30 on Feb. 3.

Chacal
Who knew there was a reason he wasn't going sturgeon fishing this weekend.

[Mrdorkfish]

I never got to reply after my last "sewage spill" on the other post...but uh..all i got from the info posted in the fact sheet is why it happens...how long we're gonna have to wait till the project gets finished and how it's gonna be fixed...the only good thing was the 90 sum odd percent that won't get released into the river after it's all done. I've seen the same thing happen when they had the treatment plant in Troutdale...the river would be high...i'd look across and watch the water fall of fecal material come out of the blackberry bushes as truck after truck would unload it's "LOAD" :shocked: I called DEQ as soon as i got home from fishing the Sandy and they said...we'll look into it..give us your name and number..never heard another word about it. Anyway..only about 8 more years.

MrDorkfish [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]

Some guy named Louis

[Away2Long]

Chacal -
Good one intercepting the mayor's letter.....

Like it says on the city vehicles

PORTLAND
The City that Works

only thing is they were saving a few bucks and left off the last two words:

PORTLAND
The City that Works YOU OVER
:tongue:

[SPAZZ]

[img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[bait-n-wait]

This is outrageous!!!.. what gets me is that they charge us for the rain run off then dump into the river... thats the government for you. seems to me that with all the water shortages in the summer the would build a few more resevoirs to hold the storm water rather than dump it. IMO

[Riverliver]

MAN THAT BURNS MY BUTTT.. If I did something like that on my floating home they would throw away the keys..
@!#$!@#@$ [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[Steelie Steve]

Just an FYI for those of you that want to learn a little more about this major project. Here are a couple of websites which describe exactly what the City of Portland is doing to remedy this problem. These have been posted before both on this topic and on previous discussions about this. Took 100+ years to make this problem. They are fixing it in 10 to 15.

Clean River Works - CSO Project

CSO Project

For those of you that may think I work for the City and am defending them, don't go there. I am a private employee (read that "working stiff") working in this fine City who agrees that this is a problem. Unfortunately, I also know that it isn't going away overnight.

[img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

[CATCH AND EAT]

Where do you boys dump your pee when out in a boat fishing? :shocked:

Just love it this time of year. You get to see and abundance of brown trout, Willamette Jelly Fish and many types of decorative and festive papers that you normally would not see.

I kinda like Rich's idea.