The Portland Tribune recently ran an article, City’s sewage saga, about the Garden Home pressurized sewer line. It is a tale of exploding sewer lines, environmental contamination, last minute pipe material substitutions, trips to Reno for city employees paid for by pipe manufacturers, and an unnecessary “cost savings” boondoggle which, years later, still hasn’t saved the city any money.
The city did not need to build this system, nor do they have to repair nor replace it now. They have always had the option to send the flow via a gravity fed line to a Washington County treatment plant, as has been done in prior decades. The city built this failed pressure system to pump sewage uphill to their already at-capacity Columbia River treatment plant. Originally, the plan called for using steel pipe, but in order to shave off 0.9% from their $18,000,000 project, they substituted plastic pipe instead. Now they want to spend many more millions to repair their plastic pipe system. One has to wonder if the city will ever save any money on this project, or if the expenses and fines will continue to escalate? Any good poker player knows there comes a time you have to cut your losses and walk away from the money in the pot, rather than throw more money after something you can’t win.
A related story, City will build projects as part DEQ sewage discharge penalty, highlights some of the secondary expenses from this (and other) city sewer woes.