MAYOR'S MESSAGE Celebrating Five Years of Successful Water Quality Stewardship Five years ago on July 6, 2021, the City took back control in-house of the City’s wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. The Water Quality division was formed, and they have been hard at work for the last five years. Every day 24/7, 365 days a year this infrastructure is operating for the wastewater leaving your home to go to the treatment plants, be treated, and then to the bay; and all stormwater leaving your home makes it to the bay as well. A huge undertaking over the five-year timeframe is correcting the deferred maintenance. Over the last five years there has been a 90% reduction in pump station callouts due to the maintenance team working hard and replacing what was needed for pump stations to work efficiently without calling out. There have been over 100 electrical breaker replacements and over 5,720 pump station checks. Ten brand new pumps have been installed (with four more set to be installed) replacing ones that were well past their lifespan and not operating as efficiently as they should. Six generators have been replaced. There have also been too many ragballs (wipe blockages) removed to count and thousands of times where the maintenance team has had to make parts and make things work until morning or when the part can be purchased. This team is very skilled and has been able to plan and replace parts that are no longer operationally functioning as they should. Over these five years there have been over 135 miles of sanitary sewer lines cleaned throughout the City, 35 miles of sanitary lines televised, over a half of a mile of mainline repaired or replaced in-house, 99 manholes repaired or replaced in-house. Over four miles of storm sewer lines cleaned, and three miles of storm lines televised. Over 700 catch basins cleaned, over 30 catch basins repaired or replaced in-house. Over 2,200 truckloads of biosolids have been land applied, and 4,520 locates have been performed. All of this effort to ensure that the wastewater from your homes reaches the treatment plants to be treated. There have been 6,789,000,000 gallons of wastewater treated in 5 years (yes that is 6.7 billion gallons). With 7,200 in-house permit tests performed to ensure that the wastewater is treated per the NPDES permit prior to entering the bay. Over 1,000 days with no permit violations at Plant 2. Working through Plant 1’s upgrade was at times challenging and staff persevered through it. The new upgrade at the plant is fully operational and functioning very well. In these past five years there have been over 40 multi-day large storm events where staff worked all day and all night to ensure that the infrastructure is moving the wastewater and stormwater to the right locations. I recently had the opportunity to tour Plant 1, and it was amazing to see the excitement and pride in our staff to provide a service to the citizens that is often not always thought of. When we flush our toilets, brush our teeth, shower, run the dishwasher, wash our hands, do laundry, all of this wastewater travels from our homes and to the treatment plants where it is treated prior to entering the bay per our permit requirements. As we look back on the last five years we want to say thank you to everyone who has had a part in improving and operating the largest infrastructure the City owns and that we can rest assured that even when it is storming our men and women in the Water Quality Division will answer the call to come to work, put on rain gear, and start their long days to ensure that the wastewater and stormwater infrastructure is doing its job. I know that the next years will have even more success with improving and sustaining our infrastructure to provide many more billions of gallons of wastewater to be treated. -Joe Benetti, Mayor of Coos BayPhotos from Coos Bay - City Government's post