Current canyon site constricts expansion options, say backers of new plant at new site

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

Past the Wonder trailhead, at the top of a road just wide enough to permit two-way traffic, Ashland’s Water Treatment Plant is a sprawl of low buildings filling the available flat ground where mountains come shoulder to shoulder. Stepping from the car, surrounding forest showed a flickering blush of vermillion made of dead and dying Douglas fir trees. 

As Ashland’s Public Works Director Scott Fleury prepared to give Ashland.news a spring tour of the facility and explain how it works and why the city intends to take out a loan of up to $75 million to replace it, he pointed to a disused structure. In a crux at the entrance, the structure is integral to one of his favorite historical photos of the circa 1948 plant — a worker lying on the roof of a building floating in flood water. 

“To take that photo, somebody had to have clambered up on this structure here,” Fleury said. 

Natural hazards 

In the ’97 flood the facility was buried in sediment and dug out. Dying Douglas firs are fewer in number after the city’s helicopter logging project, but the steep terrain and infrastructure below make removal difficult, Fleury said. Their removal would lower risk, but still leave the plant under threat from wildfire. 

The plant’s location is also at risk of landslides, according to mapped data shared with Ashland.news by Wildfire Division Chief Chris Chambers. The landslide risk limits the number of dead trees that can be removed — their roots help hold soil in the mountainside. 

The main concrete structures are not reinforced as seismic code was not in place in 1948, Fleury said, moving away from the quaint wooden 1909 hydroelectric dam building sitting in the furthest reach of the canyon that stretches to the reservoir below. 

The current plant requires near continuous manual operation. Remote operation is possible for one to two days. Walking toward the structure housing the chemical equipment, the view down the singular driveway showed a gravel road snaking through forest. 

“You have the safety of the site, but also access. What if we do have a fire or an earthquake or a flood? You can’t get here. So how do you treat water? … From the operator’s side, where do they go?” Fleury said. 

A number of Ashland residents are similarly wary of the cost of the new plant and its effect on water rates and the city’s finances. Ashland City Council voted to approve a resolution authorizing entering into an agreement for the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan in March, according to city documents. 

Concerned residents were successful in gathering 977 signatures, qualifying the resolution to approve the funding for a ballot referendum in the November election, as previously reported by Ashland.news. 

“NOBODY is questioning that the water treatment plant requires upgrade. … Referring the council’s approval to the voters gives the city the chance to provide more information about this $75 million project and explain why the choice they voted for is the best long-term, most cost-effective, solution to this problem,” wrote George Kramer in a letter to the editor earlier this year. 

Fleury stated the project’s justification lies in the natural hazards at the site and that any further upgrades to bring the old facility up to new standards would be a sunk cost. 

Old vs. new: plant operations 

The buildings hover near Ashland Creek to allow water to flow through the hydroelectric dam — powering around 2,000 homes at peak flow — then into the chemical treatment building. 

Inside, over the din of machinery, Fleury explained a continuously adjusted amount of alum, sodium hypochlorite and soda ash is added before water moves into a “flocculation basin.” 

“All the chemicals come together, pick up the materials, the organics and build them into what we call a “floc.” Sometimes you can see it. You’re trying to build this mass big enough to get caught on the filters,” he said. 

The chemical treatment portion was added decades later in a series of modifications to bring the simple screen filter design of the original plant up to speed with continuously changing regulation standards. 

The system uses more chemicals than a new one would, creating an additional cost and a soon-to-be-faced problem — only one truck driver in the state is willing to deliver chemicals due to the facility’s tight confines. 

“He’s confident enough and he’s done it long enough that he’s okay with doing it. But he’s almost at the age where he’s no longer participatory to delivering chemicals,” Fleury said. 

If this driver retires with the current plant in use, chemicals would likely be delivered to a city facility in town and ferried up in smaller loads by city staff. 

The resulting gray water from the flocculation process is released into a holding area destined for the wastewater treatment plant. A new plant won’t create gray water of this kind; the water would go into Ashland Creek. 

“You don’t have to treat it and treat it again. Then you get the additional benefit of having that additional water in Ashland Creek for a longer stretch,” he said. 

Hotter, longer summers can leave the creek anemic in its flow. Gray water produced by Ashland’s plant can amount to a couple hundred thousand gallons a day, Fleury said. 

Water is finally moved into filter bays — structured layers of anthracite coal and sand —  then into a tank where a small amount of chlorine is added before moving to reservoirs and ratepayer’s pipes. 

The new plant would have a mechanism to clear “turbidity,” sediment that runs into the creek during storms. Inside the control room, a clear tube extended up from the floor where sediment and water were visible to help operators monitor it. Last winter a storm produced enough to shut the plant down for half a day, unknown to residents due to that season’s lower water demands.

The city qualified for the EPA loan in part because Ashland is listed by the Oregon Health Authority as facing toxic contaminants due to periodic blooms of cyanotoxin-containing algae in the reservoir. Cyanotoxins can cause health effects ranging from skin irritation to gastrointestinal effects or death, according to the EPA’s website. 

“That’s climate driven. You’re seeing hotter temperatures for longer periods of time which helps the algae bloom,” Fleury said. 

If the blue-green blooms are spotted, two positive samples within 24 hours would lead to a “do not drink, do not boil” notice. Adding a hydrogen peroxide product called “green clean” kills the algae. But too much opens their cell walls and releases the toxin. 

To largely replace green clean with ozone treatment, a section of the canyon wall would have to be removed. Fleury worries about accidental damage to the facility. Construction is challenging; in some places almost 180 degree turns are required to maneuver vehicles, he said. The old plant is also due to have some equipment replaced. 

“It makes it harder and harder to deal with a system that was built in the ’40s to manage 2024 to 2025 regulatory requirements,” he said. 

Financing and options 

Ashland residents have asked Fleury if the city could source its water from Medford. 

“You’re talking probably 10 years worth of planning to figure that out and $30 (million) to 50 million dollars worth of improvement to get all that water here,” he said. 

Under an existing agreement, Ashland can receive up to 3 million gallons a day from Medford. Ashland’s daily demand is roughly 2 to 5 million gallons per day while its projected future demand is 7 million gallons per day. Water from Medford would require negotiating a new contract, designing and constructing a delivery system — all hinging on justifying to the Army Corps of Engineers why a municipality would choose not to rely on the water source it has rights to, Fleury said. Sourcing from the Talent-Ashland-Phoenix Intertie system has similar pitfalls. 

Fleury has worked on the new plant project since the end of 2012, the year it was identified in a city-wide master plan. The Ashland Water Advisory Committee — established in 2010, it spent  two years studying the city’s water system —  also identified the plant project. The city never paid engineers to study the cost to repair the current plant because, “the plan was always to build a new plant,” he said. 

“Eventually that is a total sunk cost, you’re never getting anything out of that because you know you’re going to have to replace it at some point and, not only that, but (a new plant would) mitigate the risks that we have here,” he said. 

The project’s total costs is unknown, but estimates range between $55 and 75 million. Inflation continues to drive up construction and materials costs. 

In a recent presentation to council, Fleury stated a cost of service study for water rates is expected to be ready by the end of the year, as previously reported by Ashland.news. 

In a recent online forum on the water treatment plant hosted by Ashland.news and Ashland Climate Collaborative, Fleury estimated the rate increases could be as high as 10% per year for several yearrs. 

Panelists invited to present the case in opposition to the measure “pulled from the discussion” due to “disagreements about the format,” said co-presenter Tara Houston. Proponents of the bill were then asked to step out to be “as equitable as possible,” leaving only Fleury and Finance Director Marianne Berry presenting. 

Houston asked what would happen if the measure is defeated. Fleury responded council would have to determine how they want to fund the project. Options such as revenue bonds are possible but come with potential debt impacts as well, as previously reported by Ashland.news. 

Fleury stated a strength of the WIFIA loan from the EPA is its ability to be “pulled” against, akin to a line of credit. The city would pay its bills to contractors during the project’s construction and send those bills out for reimbursement and, until that “drawdown” of funds begins, the city would not accrue interest. 

But opponents of the project have pointed to long-term debt as a reason to reconsider. 

“This means your grandchildren will be paying for this water treatment plant. Yes, they say there are grants, this is only speculation,” said Ashland City Councilor Gina DuQuenne in written remarks provided to a Rotary Club-hosted discussion of the project in September. 

During the forum, Ashland.news Executive Editor Bert Etling asked in a worst case scenario where the entire loan amount is used, with around a 4.2% interest rate with 35 years to pay it back, what total amount would be paid back? Berry stated it could be around $110 million in interest. 

“We wouldn’t necessarily be paying it all down at once, we also have the ability to pay down at any time. And also the feature of resetting that (interest) rate when rates ease in the next couple of years which the Fed has indicated that they would. I think I saw a question in the chat, ‘Are those typical terms?’ and they’re not,” Berry said. 

In a followup email, Berry clarified that, she said, “That number should be more like $80-90M. There are many factors that go into the interest payment beyond the interest rate, such as principle repayment, timeline for construction drawdowns, and other specifics around the WIFIA loan. … Repayment of the WIFIA loan has some flexibility, such as length of term and interest payment deferral during construction. These are not typical terms with other financing instruments.”

Other loans or bond measures would require fixed interest rates and more rigid forms of repayment. At his council presentation, Fleury also detailed several grants the city has applied for, including a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of up to $50 million, but multiple proposed funding options are described in detail in meeting materials. Further data on options considered and funding details are available on the city of Ashland’s website. 

Driving out of the canyon, the new plant’s nearby location at the city’s old granite pit site has panoramic views in its place adjacent to the hills.

With greater points of access, construction would be easier, up to seismic code, include the ozone treatment, increased turbidity treatment, ability for up to three days of remote operation and, depending on grant funding, could include solar power systems with battery back-up. Despite the lessened fire risk outside the canyon, it would have robust fire suppression systems. 

Last year a lightning strike near Reeder Reservoir sparked a fire and “the fastest response known to man,” from firefighters, Fleury said. 

At the water plant’s current location, “if it got away … it got away,” he said. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

Oct. 30: Added followup clarification from Finance Director Mariane Berry regarding total cost of interest payments.

Related stories:

Rotarians hosted water treatment plant program (Oct. 27, 2024)

Council reviews funding options for new water treatment plant (Oct. 17, 2024)

County: Enough petition signatures submitted to put Ashland water plant financing on the November ballot (July 3, 2024)

Petition campaign for Ashland $75-million water bond gets extension (May 23, 2024)

Council Corner: Tapping into the city’s master plan for water (May 6, 2024)

Council Corner: Residential water rates in Ashland (April 30, 2024)

Water treatment plant plans approved by Planning Commission (April 27, 2023)