City of Bend appeals $30K Oregon DEQ fine over effluent limit, monitoring violations

'Operationally, it’s like working on a car while you’re driving it.'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The city of Bend is appealing a $30,333 penalty levied early last month by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for violating effluent limits and monitoring requirements over a three-year period at its wastewater treatment plant on McGrath Road.

The facility’s manager, Chris Miccolis, received a letter in early November in which the agency said the city exceeded effluent limits for biochemical oxygen demand (BODs) 25 times between July 2019 and last March, total suspended solids 60 times and bacteria (E. coli) 15 times.

DEQ Compliance and Enforcement Manager Kieran O’Donnell also said the city failed to collect effluent monitoring data on seven occasions between August 2018 and August 2021.

“DEQ appreciates the efforts the city has undertaken in recent years to upgrade its system,” O’Donnell wrote, noting that the agency “considered those efforts when determining the amount of the civil penalty. With the upgrades now complete, DEQ expects the city will operate in compliance with its permit going forward.”

City of Bend Utilities Department Director Mike Buettner said Tuesday the issues arose during a plant expansion that was completed in 2019, to not only deal with the area’s growth but also upgrade technology, including “two centrifuges the size of VW buses.”

“We had every intent of complying with the parameters of our permit,” he said.

One issue arose in the summer of 2019, when they shut down two of the three “primary clarifiers” to make the upgrades, "putting stress on the aeration basins.”

“This is one of the most complex assets the city owns,” Buether said. “It has to operate 24 hours a day – it has to. The idea of expanding it is challenging for staff. Operationally, it’s like working on a car while you’re driving it.”

The other main issue arose about six months later, in February 2020, when two aeration basins were shut down for expansion work on that part of the facility – just as the lading data showed “we got hit with a couple of spikes, at a weak moment. Something went down the drain somewhere in the system,” which along with household waste involves industrial pre-treatment for businesses around the city.

As for the data collection issue, Buettner said, “Some of it was completely on staff – a different understanding on how to report data that failed a quality control measure. Ultimately, DEQ looked at our interpretation and said it was wrong.”

Buettner said they have asked DEQ “to revisit come calculations,” and their judgment of the magnitude of the impact, which the city believes fell in the minor, not in the “moderate” category.

“We don’t discharge into the river or anything, but into Hatfield Pond,” Buettner explained. “If (the plant) were distributing effluent to the river, it’d be a much different story.”

Buettner said the city and DEQ staff have a “collaborative, positive” relationship, and pointed to another part of the letter, in which DEQ noted it could let the city resolve part of the fine by completing a “supplemental environmental project.”

“One option we do have, is 80% of any final (penalty) amount can be contributed to a supplemental environmental project that would qualify with DEQ," Buettner said. "We’ll explore what project we can do to keep those dollars local.”