A $40 million ozone treatment facility is under construction at the Geren Island Water Treatment Facility to give Salem even more control over the quality of water sent into homes and businesses. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
Want to know how September’s wildfires impacted Salem’s drinking water? The Salem City Club will be covering the topic Friday during a Zoom panel.
The program starts at noon on Friday and people can register by visiting the Salem City Club website. The event costs $5 for nonmembers and is free for members of the city club.
“We are all well aware of what extreme wildfires are doing to our homes, forests and air quality. What’s less clear is how wildfires pollute and alter the water coming out of our watersheds,” an event preview states.
The event will go over wildfire issues in the Pacific Northwest. It’ll review the Willamette Valley and Santiam watersheds after the September wildfires ravaged the Santiam Canyon.
One of the speakers is Jude Ground, vice president of Carollo Engineering, who has worked with Salem to develop solutions to cyanotoxins in the water supply through his experience in water treatment design and construction. Cyanotoxins, toxins produced by bacteria that flourish in warm environments, are becoming increasingly common as Oregon’s summers get hotter and dryer.
The city is spending $46 million to design and construct an ozone treatment facility at the Geren Island Water Treatment Facility to treat cyanotoxins. The construction followed a 2018 water crisis where cyanotoxins got into the drinking water supply and sent residents panic buying bottled water.
Other speakers include Lacey Goeres-Priest, water quality supervisor for Salem, who oversees watershed monitoring, water sampling and the well system. Chris Hoy, a Salem city councilor, will review the jurisdictional agreements with communities in the Santiam watershed.
“The canyon wildfire highlights the need to ensure that they are working well,” an event preview said. – Saphara Harrell
