Water and Wastewater Update

December 28, 2007

I have been informed that our new water and wastewater manager, John Warthernbe, will begin January 7th, 2008.

The City of Oregon has received a noncompliance Advisory from the IEPA, about our remaining combined sewer discharges into the Rock River.   The letter suggests that we improve the bottlenecks in our raw sewage pump capacity and the restriction in the channel to screening.  I have contacted Karl Merbach, CMT and the IEPA about a response and CMT will put together the necessary documentation for the City to submit.  The City will continue the smoke testing to identify noncompliance storm water discharges into the sanitary sewer.  All storm water infiltration must be eliminated.

I have received the completed Facility Plan for our wastewater plant from CMT and when reviewed and signed, it will be forwarded to the IEPA for approval.   Hopefully this will complete our requirements for a revolving loan from the IEPA for our wastewater upgrade.  The City is also going to receive $500,000 from the Federal Government as a grant to help with our upgrade project.

I met with Mike Burris of CMT and they are working on all of our existing projects and everything seems to be progressing as planned.  I have alerted CMT of the IDOT work planned for Route 2 North and CMT will be in contact with the IDOT Dixon office. 

We have another electrical failure at the Jackson Street lift station and the repair last summer was apparently inadequate.  Commonwealth Edison found a cable that were damaged by Fischer Excavating when they installed the storm water catch basin at Jefferson and 10th St. The wires to our lift station will now be permanently installed overhead.

I had a meeting with Northern Water Works Supply and we have reached an agreement on extended warranties on our radio read meter equipment saving the City $750.00.  The City will be installing 500 radio read meters each year for three years until all City meters have been replaced.  Old meters read low, and the City can expect a 20% increase in fees from accurate water meter readings,