HB 5030 Passes Oregon Senate

Providing Funding for Sweet Home Wastewater Treatment Facility

SWEET HOME, Oregon July 18, 2019 – On June 30, 2019 the Oregon Senate approved HB 5030 which awarded the City of Sweet Home $7M in lottery bonds for rehabilitating the Sweet Home Wastewater Treatment Facility.

Recent efforts by City staff and engineers have reduced the estimated cost of the project from $42M to $28.2M. In 2017 the Sweet Home City Council proactively raised our sewer rates in anticipation of the project, which is allowing us to amass approximately $7M in local funds for the project. Then in June of 2018, we were awarded $2M in lottery bonds for the rehabilitating the Sweet Home Wastewater Treatment Facility. With this most recent award of $7M in lottery bonds, this will lower the overall project cost to the community. At the start of construction, we will have $16M in the bank of the $28.2M project, lowering subsequent debt obligations for future generations.

The City of Sweet Home treats the sewage from our homes and businesses at our Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), then releases the treated water into the South Santiam River which eventually flows into the Willamette River. As the first city along this river upgrading our WWTP to comply with the State regulations which protect the health of our rivers is paramount. The original WWTP was built in the 1940’s, with upgrades in the 1970’s and 1990’s with much of the original facility is still in use today. Currently our WWTP is not equipped with headworks which filters out flushed debris making the water released into the South Santiam River cleaner for cities further downstream. In our research we found that rehabilitating the current building is more cost efficient than demolishing and building a new complex.

The City is especially grateful to Senator Girod, committee co-chair, and Representative Sprenger for their hard work advocating in both chambers for our community. 

###