The Public is Invited to a Meeting and Hearing June 6 on the City of Hermiston Water Quality Permit
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will hold a public hearing on the proposed renewal of the City of Hermiston water quality permit for its wastewater treatment plant. DEQ is proposing to renew the permit which allows discharge of treated domestic effluent to the Umatilla River and the West Division Main Canal.
The informational session will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 6 in Eastern Oregon Higher Education Center Room 134 at Blue Mountain Community College, 975 SE Columbia in Hermiston.
In 2014, the city upgraded its treatment plant at 2205 N. First Place. The upgrades included a new membrane bioreactor treatment process that provides an extremely high quality effluent, which is discharged just upstream from Three Mile Dam and the West Division Main Canal. The discharge to the canal will be available for farmers to use as irrigation water.
The proposed permit is more stringent than the previous permit. The city would discharge all of their effluent to the canal from April to October, rather than discharging to the Umatilla River during these times. Due to the treatment plant upgrades, pollutant discharges to the river from November through April will also be greatly reduced.
In addition to attending the meeting, people can send written comments on the draft permit by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 13. Comments should be emailed to ray.jackie@deq.state.or.us or sent by mail to Jackie Ray, Permit Coordinator, 800 SE Emigrant Ave., Suite 330, Pendleton, Oregon, 97801.
Contact
Duane Smith, Senior WQ Permit Specialist, Pendleton, (541) 278-4607, smith.duane@deq.state.or.us