City of Oregon Public Property Update

January 11, 2006

The City of Oregon has had meetings with CMT (Crawford, Murphy & Tilly), the City Engineers and plans are moving forward for water and sewer line extensions and modifications with upgrades to our Wastewater Treatment Plant.  Additional meetings will be held next week and we are now narrowing our focus on actual construction.

The Water and Sewer line extensions are East of Oregon and are in anticipation of growth on the East side of the City.  Water line capacity to Daysville Road and Route 64 must be increased to provide the volume of water necessary, and the City intends to bore under the intersection of Daysville Road and Route 64 to provide service to the Southeast corner of that intersection.   Tentative plans are being formulated for retail and residential development at the Koontz property and long-term plans are being worked on for eventual water and sewer service to E. D. Etnyre and Co.   The estimated construction cost of the initial phase of this project is estimated to be  $389,000, and we anticipate completion this summer.

The second project is the upgrading of our Wastewater Treatment Plant including the installation of a cannibal process to eliminate 90% of our wastewater sludge.  The cannibal process has been developed and is now provided by U. S. Filter and will be incorporated into our treatment process with modifications to the existing plant, which will increase the efficiency of our sludge handling capabilities.  Byron Illinois has had the cannibal system in operation for five years and has not had the need to dispose of sludge.  You can go to www.usfilter.com for an explanation of how the cannibal process works.

Sludge has been the primary problem with the City of Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant and the problems became evident with my first understanding of our operation.  Our winter wastewater sludge storage is inadequate and our land-applied sludge has a serious problem meeting IEPA requirements.  Land applied sludge will become more complicated as the IEPA demands testing and much more stringent requirements with regard to radium and arsenic.  The planned Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements will address this very serious problem.  The Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant has provided excellent service for many years but it is old and outdated.  It will require considerable maintenance expense to maintain its existing function and capacity.  With new requirements on the system and advances in technology in the operation of wastewater treatment plants, the planned upgrades will provide Oregon with an estimated 20 years of efficient reliable service. 

The estimated project cost of the Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade, including the installation of the cannibal process, is approximately $3,216,000. The funding of the planned projects can be paid for with existing Capital Improvement funds as funds become available over the next 20 years.  No increase in fees is anticipated for the planned improvements and this ambitious plan should resolve concerns for the future of the City of Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant.