Declaring an emergency at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, the North Bend City Council voted unanimously Jan. 19 to approve almost $257,000 in repairs to the aging facility.

The emergency status allowed the city to bypass a requirement for advertising for bids on the project, but the plant nearly did reach a critical stage during four significant storms last fall.

Heavy rain led to stormwater infiltrating the sewer system, increasing the plant’s inflow to the point that both of its ultraviolet disinfecting units were operating around the clock, with no backup, to process all the water coming through the system.

“We didn’t come close to a spill to the river because we always had one system operating,” said North Bend Public Works Director Mark Rigos. “We do have some redundancies, but not enough. We get a little nervous when those flows get up to 3, 3.5 million gallons a day.”

One UV system has a capacity of 2.5 million gallons per day, or slightly less than the plant’s 2.58 gallons per day maximum output permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Typically, the plant treats about 500,000 gallons per day.

Rigos recommended a series of repairs to the plant that would update components in the two existing UV disinfection units and add a third, to extend the useful life of the disinfection system to seven or nine years. Cost for the components, which are custom built by a single company, Aquionics, was estimated at $246,454, plus $10,346 in labor from Keithly Electric.

The city’s wastewater treatment plant has needed numerous repairs in recent years, the result of decades of deferred maintenance, Rigos said. Several factors are contributing to the wear and tear on the plant, including the amount of rain the region receives, the high water table, and the city’s aging infrastructure, which may be to blame for the city’s high level of storm water infiltration.

Leaking old side sewers, connecting individual properties to the city’s main lines, could allow for storm water infiltration, Rigos said. Public works staff will be working with owners of older connections to investigate both for side sewer problems, and misdirected downspouts.

“We’re concerned that there’s a lot of homes and businesses in the downtown area, with downspouts tied into our sewer system,” when they should be tied into the city’s separate storm water system, Rigos said.

Those projects will be conducted over the next two years, Rigos said. In the near future, he also plans to request a sizeable sewer rate increase from the city council.

“It needs to happen. We need to raise rates very soon,” he said. “It may not double, but it needs to come up substantially.”

The city is now conducting two rate studies, of the monthly sewer rates and of the city’s one-time general facilities charge assessed on new construction, that will lead to recommendations by March.