I'm turning notes into readable text, and will post them here as they become coherent, filling from the end of the meeting to the beginning. I apologize for having missed the CCFD#1 briefing and some of the anti-floridation's advocate's speech, but I was unexpectedly on the air, running an ARES Net, out in the parking lot.....
Reports from service districts
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Water: Jim Knapp
He has a manual available for checkout, provided by the anti-floridation advocates, one of whom spoke earlier.
Water Board member Roy Smith resigned, so a Water District board vacancy will be filled. Applications are available; Knapp circulated some.
The district is working rapidly to get work on roads done before paving starts. Flushing of water mains is underway as well.
Our water year is from October 1 to September 30, and catching up with our low snowfall winter would require double the normal rainfal now. However, there's plenty of water for this year.
Sanitary District: Kent Squires
The district has 100 miles of sewer line, and cleans them on a 5-10 year schedule. Like to lay down grade rings around manholes before paving's done, otherwise you will feel the manholes when you drive over them. Leaks into manholes and from elsewhere is part of the reason there's 2.6-2.7 million gallons on a dry day, but 15 million gallons of flow in soggy season.
Coordination with the County Road Department has been excellent, and surface water management programs have been fine-tuned to synchronize with county road work. The District's goal is to avoid tearing up roads for sewer work for at least three years, preferably five, but emergencies will override that plan. If good job of paving is done, a street can last 20 years.
However, last year when there was an unanticipated excess of paving material, the Road Department paved Vinyard Way early; the District then gave residents their choice of having sewer work done as planned, and the Vinyard Way residents chose to decline the sewer work.
The use of fiber-optic remote television inspections help somewhat in anticipating needs.
One project, where the District planned the work but the County did the construction, led to a problem. Sanitary sewers are typically eight foot down, or deeper, whereas storm swewers usually are three to four feet deep. After the county or its contractor rototilled to create the best base for new paving, some of those shallower storm drain sections were found to have bene crushed, so those had to be dug up & replaced.
Next year, the district will develop a new master plan, projecting collection, transmission & treatment for the next 40 years. The last master plan was developed in 1990, and it's out of date. The district hopes to complete it in six to nine months, then move on to construction planning.
Pumping station Four is an 50-year old 'airpot' (a noisy design using compressed air, with a pressure chamber which will fail sometime). It serves 26 homes, at the end of Oak Shore Lane, between the street end and the river, and is surrounded by an arborvitae hedge. Flooding requires sealing it, which has happened several times in its service life. It will be replaced with smaller, quieter & more efficient pumps which will not require the pre-flood sealing work.
Capital projects are largely completed for this year, including Silverleaf and Chestnut. Pending projects include Blanton St, Oatfield & Silverstrings, Sun Avenue, Courtney & Park, Evergreen & 20th, Arista Drive, a Park Ave Storm sewer (funded with a community block grant), fixing problems with a publicly-owned drain which runs through the Concord Mobile Home Park, and some other non-identified projects {plus at least two I could not accurately copy - Ed. note}, as well as the Trolley Trail Culvert (at least the design, if not the construction), down to the south where the creek passes the trail. A fish-friendly box culvert is planned, & contruction will be planned to try to get it done in 5 working days so as not to put out the runners/joggers/bikers/hikers. Thelma noted Metro's design calls for a bridge instead, but since that's now all County-owned, a simpler design may be substituted.
A pre-design study of River Lake will look for the cause of siltation there. Water into the lake is pretty clean, but want to improve the water quality if not the cosmetics there
The projects total around 660 kilobucks, plus another 965 kilobucks on the sanitary sewer capital improvement project.
Doug asked about the five acre Stringfield Park on Naef Rd, owned and controlled by North Clackamas Parks & Recreation. The Sanitary District got involved to create a model riparian corridor to show other neighborhoods what improvements could be made for them, but it still has a lot of berries, ivy and other invasive plant growth, so landscape design for 25-50' out from banks will follow, then the District will look to see if volunteering & donations will get the job done, or if it must contract it out. Federal funding requires no one occupy the house there; Jerry Fox is trying to get consent for a groundskeeper there. The District's Community Advisory Committee is pondering a weekend planting there as well.
George asked about the diffuser in the river. Jim replied the district has a 300' mixing zone above & below the outfall. It can't discharge acute toxics outside zone of initial dilution (a 30' range), and no chronic toxics can be discharged at all within that 300' radius mixing zone.
He also noted a disparity in how toxics are regulated: Industries can discharge 40 times what a public district or agency can do, and noted the difference between provind a small amount of jobs versus serving the homes of his district's 30,000 people.
An ongoing bioassay on fish, algae & plants showed if the organic toxics remaining after treatment are diluted to 25% or less, the fish monitored lived as well or better than a same-species control group of fish in clean water.
Most problems the District's treatment plant experiences are not not the high volume organics which clear when mixed with air in the water ('aerated'), but the heavy metals and the PCBs (poly-bichorinated phenyls) like paper mills generate. Of the heavy metals, mercury is the major offender. Studies show 135 kilograms (298 pounds) a year, only three percent of which comes through the treatment plants. That three percent, incidentally, primarily comes from dentists' office, when removing old or applying new fillings.
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Land Use: Dick Jones
First, he discussed case Z-29300, the property down next to the Wick's. Additional data was not provided within seven days & a ruling is forthcoming when the hearing officer (Epstein) returns from vacation.
An appeal to waive a sidewalk on Rimrock Meadows on Rimrock Lane will be heard on May 26.
The county denied setbacks variances for a duplex on a 45' lot at Oak Grove & Lee, as was another variance at what was Dr Walker's house with only 16'9" betwen house & line. The county seems to be less generous in waivers now.
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Other miscellaneous items:
Dick Jones & Thelma (?) discussed support for a trail. A good 'SOLVE Day' was had. Will figure out how to widen trail & clear veg, perhaps with flail mower. New trail users found from that event have spoken up. The trail has been surveyed, and the county will contract the work. County now holds deed to trail, Metro is no longer involved. Will have walks in June & July as last year Monday nights.
A Library spokesperson will speak at the next Oak Lodge CC meeting. The library is negotiating for another year at least at current location.
Another member wants to invite a county spokesperson to speak on their policy, methods and experience in resolving Measure 37 claims. Kent Squires from the Sanitary District briefly noted claimants with legitimate criteria are winning zoning waivers, as the county does not have funding to fight claimants.
Chuck Peterson praised PGE for effectively dealing with a power loss at his home last week. Power failed at 7:15 PM. After troubleshooting, a power company tech was on site in an hour to restore the 110v service. A crew started at eight the next day & by 11:15, 220v service was restored.
George Schneider noted, in follow-through to the CCSO deputy's mail/identity theft discussion, that a friend had checks stolen from mail. The Sheriff's department quickly caught the crooks & recovered all but three blank checks.
Adjourned at 9PM.
