2002 Water Quality Report

2005 Water Quality Report

The Rainier Water Department provides for the annual operating, maintenance and replacement expenses of the water treatment plant and the water distribution system. The purpose of the water operation is to insure that a safe potable water supply is available at each service tap and maintain the integrity of the distribution piping system.

Rainier completed a two phase capital construction project between 1997 and 2002 replacing its old water treatment plant with a new 2,000,000 gallon per day plant, constructing new distribution lines and system reservoirs.

Phase I project components included: Columbia River Intake, new construction of the water treatment plant including two 500,000 gallon treatment tanks, rehabilitation of a 500,000 storage tank, rehabilitation of a raw water tank, installation of a telemetry system, a MIOX chlorinator, new reservoir, reservoir pump station and corrosion protection. Lee Engineering was the project engineer. The Oregon Economic and Community Development Department's Special Public Works Fund funded the project including $2m bond, $1.21m direct loan and $250,000 grant. The City received a five year principal deferred and interest waived on the $1.21m direct loan providing a significant savings. This project is complete and local participation totaled $3.21m.

The Water System Improvement Project:Phase II provided water system improvements in West Rainier to support the US Gypsum project however, project components also provided general system wide benefits. Project components included: Upgrading the plant's water treatment capacity from 1m to 2m gallons per day; Reactivating an existing 750,000 gallon reservoir; Installing an in-line booster pump station; Raising sanitary sewer manholes to grade adjacent to USG site, and; Installing system telementry at the Rockcrest lift station. Project cost was $1,386,347 and included $500,000 in grant funds. The $886,347 was provided by a direct loan through Oregon Economic and Community Development. This project is complete and local participation totaled $886,347.

The water treatment/distribution system services about 750 accounts and ranges from small residential accounts to the US Gypsum sheetrock manufacturing facility, Rainier’s single largest water customer.

Rainier's water system includes four major components:

• Source
• Treatment
• Distribution
• Storage

Source:

The City has water rights for two sources of water, Fox Creek and the Columbia River. Fox Creek, the City's original water source, has two municipal permits totaling 1.25 cubic feet per second (cfs), or 800,000 gallons per day (gpd). The Columbia River, Rainier's second source since 1968, includes a permit for 3.10 cfs, or 2,000,000 gpd.

The City of Rainier also has a storage permit for Fox Creek of 14.5 acre-feet, or 4.7 million gallons (MG). Included with the Fox Creek source is a 1400-acre watershed and a timber dam for the 14.5 acre-feet of storage. Water from Fox Creek is fed to the water treatment plant by gravity from the watershed via an 8-inch steel pipeline approximately one mile long. Water from the Columbia River is pumped from an intake located at the Rainier Marina via a 10-inch ductile iron waterline.

Treatment:

The water treatment plant, constructed in two phases, is a Miro-Floc Trident package treatment plant, which includes upflow clarifiers and mixed media filters. Phase-one, completed in the summer of 2000, included two 500,000 gallon per day filters and the treatment plant building. Phase-two, completed in the fall of 2001, included the addition of a one million gallon per day filter.

The treatment process begins with the addition of Aluminum Sulfate (Alum), a non-ionic polymer, chlorine, and when needed soda ash. After the addition of the chemicals, water proceeds through one of three upflow clarifiers, which are basically filters comprised of millions of tiny plastic beads.

The clarifiers remove about 90-percent of the turbidity from the water. After clarification, the water proceeds through filters, followed by the addition of chlorine for disinfection and soda ash for pH adjustment.

Distribution:

The distribution system includes approximately 93,000 feet or 17.61 miles of distribution pipe ranging from three-quarters inches to 12 inches in diameter. This does not include the transmission lines from the two intakes to the water treatment plant. Thirty-five percent of the pipe, or 33,000 feet, is four inches in diameter or less.

Sixty-five percent of the pipe, or 60,000 feet, is six to twelve inches in diameter. The pipe material includes ductile iron, cast iron, steel, PVC, AC, and galvanized iron. There are three pumping stations included in the distribution system. One pumps water to a 40,000-gallon redwood tank on Townsend Road. The second pumps water to a 500,000-gallon reservoir located on Neer City Road, and the third pressurizes the water main on Old Rainier Road.

Storage

There are four storage reservoirs within the City of Rainier water system, with a total storage volume of 1,790,000 gallons. The reservoirs include two 500,000 gallon, one 750,000 gallon, and one 40,000 gallon reservoir.

Water Rates and Fees

Water Rates

Water rates are comprised of a flat fee based on meter size plus a fee for the actual water consumption. The water consumption charge is .02436 per cubic feet of water consumed. One hundred cubic feet is equal to 748 gallons. The cost of a gallon of water is approximately one third of a cent or $0.0033. An additional charge of twenty-five dollars is assessed to customers served by the City's water system but live outside the City limits.

Below are monthly flat fees per meter size.

• ¾-inch water meter: $15.38
• 1-inch water meter: $37.16
• 2-inch and above water meter: $60.43

Connection Fees:

The connection fee is $500 for all water meters ¾-inch to 2-inch.

The connection fee for large meters (over 2-inch) is based on the actual cost of the meter installation.

System Development Charges

General Water System Development Charges

• Single Family: $920 per unit
• Duplex: $920 per unit
• Multi-Family: $645 per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU).
• All other categories $920 per EDU.
• One EDU is equal to 825 cubic feet of water on a peak monthly basis.

Industrial Area System Development Charges

• The improvement fee to be charged is $3.68 per gallon of estimated daily use.