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City staff recommend groundwater recharge as wastewater plan after state law opens reuse option
Summary
Sandy public works director AJ told residents the facility plan favors groundwater recharge — the lowest-cost option — after Oregon's recent water-reuse legislation. Staff said monitoring, polishing and novel permitting will be required because this approach is new in Oregon.
AJ, Sandy’s public works director, presented the city’s amended wastewater facility plan and recommended a groundwater recharge option for treating effluent after a change in state law opened new reuse pathways.
The proposal comes after the legislature passed House Bill 2069 earlier this year, which AJ described as expanding opportunities for water reuse. “This facility plan recommends the groundwater discharge option. It is our lowest cost option. It gives us the most flexibility,” AJ said, citing a preliminary cost range of $134 million to $147 million for the groundwater approach versus roughly $165 million for a Sandy River discharge and $184 million–$195 million to pipe raw sewage to Gresham’s treatment plant.
Staff explained the plan includes phased upgrades: Phase 1 would install a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and headworks upgrades at the treatment plant; Phase 2 would add effluent polishing (activated carbon or reverse osmosis) and establish monitoring. AJ emphasized the city would be among the first in Oregon to seek a permit for this kind of groundwater discharge and said regulators will require careful, site-specific monitoring: “The polish agent comes in, to make sure that there isn’t a degradation in background water quality and groundwater,” a project consultant explained.
Residents pressed staff on site selection and aquifer impacts. Staff said the likely injection site is on the city’s nursery partner’s property but added: “We need to do the groundwork to make sure that location will work for us.” On monitoring and public-safety concerns, staff said state rules prohibit degrading background groundwater quality and that the plan’s polishing and monitoring program are intended to meet that standard.
What’s next: staff will continue permitting work and more detailed engineering and return to council with permitting milestones and a refined cost estimate. The city has the option to pursue gravity discharge to Tickle Creek when seasonal rules allow, send effluent to the nursery partner when they have a need, or use groundwater recharge as a backstop during shoulder seasons or drought.
