Clackamas Water Environment Services reports infrastructure, energy and SDC plans to Oregon City commissioners

Clackamas Water Environment Services Director Greg Geiss told the Oregon City Commission on July 2 that the utility serves about 190,000 people and continues capital planning, energy-efficiency work and regional partnerships.

Geiss said the utility provides sanitary sewer, some stormwater services and wastewater treatment for Oregon City and other urbanized areas of Clackamas County. “Our facility here in Oregon City takes what goes down your toilet, and we make three things. We make clean water, we make electricity that we partially use to power our facility, and we make a biosolids material that is a natural fertilizer,” Geiss said.

The report outlined the utility’s finances and capital program. Geiss said roughly 60%–62% of a ratepayer dollar goes to operations and maintenance, about 9% to debt service and about 29% to infrastructure and financing. He said the utility has had a series of roughly 5% rate increases over the past five years and maintains master plans and a long-range financial plan.

Geiss described an engineering project to extend the facility’s river outfall and said the utility now has capacity “out to 2080” for that outfall. He told commissioners the construction included a period when a bore got stuck for about 10 days and created a sinkhole at John Storm Park; crews have replaced the pavers at the restroom area.

On new-connection charges, Geiss said a system development charge (SDC) study showed a maximum allowable SDC near $12,200. He said the Board of County Commissioners directed the utility to phase in that level over a longer ramp than the advisory committee recommended, a decision he characterized as the board not adopting the advisory committee’s recommendation for the first time in the committee’s current form.

Geiss highlighted energy-efficiency work and regional collaboration. He said the utility received a $44,000 incentive check and achieved a 4.1% reduction in energy consumption, and that the Tri-City regional energy reduction program had about $10,500,000 approved across projects, with eight projects approved and three completed. He thanked Oregon City for “embracing” the regional program, saying Oregon City received over $1 million in reimbursements in 2024 for projects.

Commissioners thanked Geiss and discussed local benefits of shared programs. Mayor Denise McGriff and Commissioner Mike Mitchell both noted the utility’s partnership with the city, including Good Neighbor grants and the I&I (inflow and infiltration) program that targets leaks and inflow into the sewer system.

Geiss answered several questions about local programs and outreach and said the utility will continue coordination with the city and advisory committee on SDCs and capital work.

The briefing was informational; no commission action on Clackamas Water Environment Services items was taken at the meeting.