Estacada council adopts water master plan, officials outline capacity and leak-reduction priorities

The Estacada City Council voted to adopt a 20-year water master plan after the city’s engineering consultant said the system can meet projected demand only if the city advances treatment upgrades, adds storage and pursues an aggressive leak-repair program.

The plan, which the Oregon Health Authority reviewed and returned as meeting state requirements, lays out improvements to the city’s source, treatment, distribution and storage and includes a capital-improvement program the consultant estimated at about $12.8 million (2027 dollars) over the next 1–5 years.

Kurt McLeod, the city engineer on the project, told the council the city’s Clackamas River intake can support the equivalent of about 10,000 people on a conservative “peak day” basis and about 18,000 on an average day. He said the nominal treatment plant rating is 2 million gallons per day (MGD) but effective treatment capacity is closer to 1.6 MGD because of equipment limits; peak-day demands have approached 1.4 MGD in recent summers.

“Using the state’s planning assumptions, our 2.6 million gallon source capacity will last for the 20 years of our master plan,” McLeod said, adding that the city’s current treatment and distribution condition makes near-term work necessary to preserve that capacity and buy time for longer-term upgrades.

Why it matters: Councilors pressed on short-term and long-term risk. The consultant flagged three items the city can act on now: repair leaks in the distribution system, complete planned pump and header replacements at the river intake, and accelerate design and procurement work for a treatment upgrade. Those steps are intended to reduce demand and restore the plant’s nominal capacity while giving staff time to plan a membrane conversion that fits the existing building footprint.

Key technical and budget details - Source and treatment: The plan reports a 2.6-million-gallon-per-day source capacity from the Clackamas River; current effective treatment is roughly 1.6 MGD. McLeod recommended converting part of the rapid-sand filter plant to membrane treatment and salvaging viable existing equipment to reduce footprint and cost. - Storage: The city currently has about 1.9 million gallons of storage and is roughly 350,000 gallons short of the state-recommended total; staff have plans ready to bid for a new tank pending a property-owner buffer agreement. - Distribution losses: The plan says the city averaged about 37% water loss between production and metered consumption over the last five years. The consultant recommended an initial leak-detection effort and budgeted $250,000 in the draft capital plan to start targeted repairs. - Estimated cost: The consultant’s estimate for priority work over the next 1–5 years is about $12.8 million (inflated to 2027 dollars). McLeod said the membrane modules themselves would account for roughly $3 million of the plant cost; the remaining cost covers building modifications, site work and long-lead equipment.

Council discussion and next steps Councilors asked whether the near-term pump and header replacements at the intake will help this summer; McLeod said work under way should increase day capacity closer to the nominal rate and help with summer peaks. Councilors also pressed on redundancy in the distribution system for higher-elevation neighborhoods and the industrial park; the consultant noted the master plan identifies candidate pipeline extensions and pressure-zone work to reduce high pressures above 100–120 psi.

McLeod said the next immediate steps are to budget the leak-detection work (he described a $25,000 acoustic pilot for about 20 hydrants or a larger $40,000–$45,000 satellite-analysis collaboration), finish the pump/header replacements this fiscal year, and begin membrane procurement early if the council wants a 2026 operational target for a retrofit.

The council moved to adopt the master plan; the motion carried. The plan will be incorporated into staff’s capital budget recommendations for the coming budget cycle.

Ending: Staff said they would include the leak-detection work in the forthcoming budget materials and return with bid-ready documents for the storage tank once the property-owner buffer issue is resolved.