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Water Environment Services

Water Environment Services

Water Environment Services

Keep F.O.G. out of your pipes!

Fats, Oils and grease monster

Fats, oils and grease (FOG) are found in common foods and food ingredients such as meat, fish, butter, cooking oil, mayonnaise, milk, gravies, sauces and food scraps. If poured down the sink drain or into your garbage disposal, FOG could build up over time by sticking to the sides of sewer pipes. This could eventually cause an expensive sewer backup into your home or the public wastewater system. The results of a grease-blocked sewer pipe can be:

  • Sewage overflows in your home or your neighbor's home causing expensive and unpleasant cleanup that often must be paid for by the property owner.
  • Sewage overflows to streets or landscaping that can get into streams and rivers causing possible contact with disease-causing organisms.
  • An increase in operation and maintenance costs for the public sewer system and the treatment facilities, which could lead to higher sewer rates for customers.

sewer blockagegrease trap

By following a few simple steps, you can help prevent sewer backups by:

  • Pouring cooled fats, oils and grease into a covered, disposable container and tossing it into your garbage instead of down sink drains.
  • Soaking up remaining FOG with paper towels and placing in the trash.
  • Scraping food scraps into your compost or trash before washing dishes.
  • Using sink strainers to catch any remaining food waste while washing dishes.
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Keep the Wipes Out

Keep the wipes out! Toilets are NOT trashcans.

Keep the Wipes Out

Disposable wipes are convenient and save time, until they cause inconvenient and costly plumbing issues in your home and our sanitary sewer system due to clogged pipes and sewage backups. When deciding what to flush down the toilet, it’s safest to stick to the three P’s: pee, poo and toilet paper.  

The problem with most wipes is that they will not disintegrate in water, so they damage pumps, pipes and other equipment throughout the collection system and at the wastewater facilities, resulting in maintenance headaches.  

Some wipes also contain plastic in their weave, and when they get a little beat up, they release microplastics that the treatment process will not remove. Those microplastics can be harmful to fish and other aquatic life.

Legislation labeling and product advancements are making products safer to use.

In 2021,  Oregon became the second state to require “Do Not Flush” labeling on disposable wipes. Manufacturers who manufacture covered products, or wholesalers, suppliers, or retailers responsible for labeling or packaging the covered products, are subject to Oregon’s requirement. Covered products include premoistened nonwoven disposable wipe marketed as a baby wipe or diapering wipe; premoistened nonwoven disposable wipe that is composed entirely of or in part of petrochemical derived fibers, and that are likely to be used in a bathroom and has a significant potential to be flushed.  
 
The industry is changing, and product advancements include some wipes that actually do break down. This is good news for the environment – and as environmental stewards we are thrilled. While some newer wipes break down, most wipes are quite strong and can take 100 years to decompose in the landfill. Hopefully advancements continue and the wipes industry moves in the right direction towards 100% fully compostable wipes. In the meantime, wipes of all kinds are best to be trashed and never flushed. 
 

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RiverHealth

The RiverHealth Stewardship Program offers grants to support community groups, businesses, and property owners who want to improve the health of watersheds within the surface water areas served by Clackamas Water Environment Services.

See the Grant application and guide for forms and program details, including eligibility and project ideas. 

Application guide Application and budget form*

The grant application process is open February through mid-April annually. For questions, contact Gail Shaloum at 503-742-4597 or gshaloum@clackamas.us.

*Contact Gail Shaloum for an XLS version of budget form.

RiverHealth Watershed Stewardship Program grant accomplishments 2023-24

Restoration Work

  • New acres planted: 12
  • Number of sites: 39
  • Acres of invasives removed: 34
  • Acres of riparian area worked on: 83
  • Linear feet of streams worked on: 12,987
  • Planted trees: 3,847
  • Planted shrubs: 8,425
  • Planted herbaceous vegetation: 275
  • Number of recruited volunteers: 1,265
  • Volunteer hours: 2,354

Educational Projects

  • Number of lessons, field trips, tours: 87
  • Number of events open to the public: 35
  • Number of adults reached: 461

Grant Accomplishments 2023-24 2024 grant recipients

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WES Projects

Capital Improvement Program

Capital Improvement Plan cover The Capital Improvement Group plans, designs and builds major capital facilities in the areas WES serves, so that operating divisions can serve our customers' wastewater and surface water needs. Capital project management includes design and construction and provides project controls in terms of cost, schedule, scope, program development and long range forecasting.

The Fiscal Year 2025 – 2030 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) was developed to support WES in meeting the needs identified in our planning documents. The CIP puts forward a prioritized plan to maintain existing facilities, allow efficient, cost-effective operations and provide new infrastructure to protect human health and clean water, today.

Sanitary Sewer System Master Plan

Capital Improvement Plan cover The purpose of this Sanitary Sewer System Master Plan is to identify immediate needs in the sanitary sewer system and develop a corresponding set of capital improvement opportunities that WES can implement through the year 2040. The Master Plan was developed to provide a least-cost combination of conveyance and treatment improvements that provide maximum value across the system.

Sanitary Sewer Projects

Clackamas Area Interceptor Improvement Project

The Clackamas Interceptor (An interceptor is a gravity sewer that transmits large volumes of wastewater to a wastewater treatment facility) lacks capacity to serve current and future ratepayers and needs rehabilitation in some areas. Design is underway. Construction will be phased over the next decade in three or four phases.

IT2 Pump Station Expansion and 30-inch Force Main Project

WES owns and operates the sewer system that carries wastewater from homes and businesses in Happy Valley and nearby areas to our treatment facilities. To ensure we can continue providing safe and reliable sewer service in the future, we need to make improvements and upgrades to the Intertie 2 Pump Station and increase the size of the force main.

Kellogg Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF)

Work to upgrade the Kellogg Creek Facility is continuing with construction on three projects:  

  • Influent Pump Station Pumps
  • Secondary Clarifier Mechanisms and Weirs – Recoats concrete and equipment and replaces drives.
  • Aeration Basin Improvements – Replaces aging instrumentation and valves to improve blower control saving energy and improving process performance.

Kellogg Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility Administration Building Remodel

After 50 years of service to the community, it’s time for much-needed upgrades. Construction is scheduled to begin on the existing administration building in the summer of 2025, with an estimated duration of 18 months. 

Multiple Pump Station Repairs and Upgrades

Several pump stations need rehabilitation and a variety of upgrades to improve reliability including safety, structural, mechanical, electrical and control system improvements.

Regional Infiltration/Inflow (I/I)

Inflow and Infiltration (I/I) is groundwater and/or rainwater that enters the sewer system through direct connections such as roof drains or area drains or defects such as leaking joints or manholes. When the amount of I/I becomes excessive, it is more cost effective to remove the I/I than upsize infrastructure or treatment facilities. To help achieve this reduction, WES has Intergovernmental Agreements with five partner cities.  With the IGAs, WES will provide 33% funding for approved I/I reduction projects.

Rock Creek Interceptor Extension Project

The Rock Creek Interceptor Extension Project was identified as a priority to ensure a safe, resilient, reliable sanitary sewer system with the capacity to serve our community now and in the future. This project will provide additional capacity and system improvements to serve Clackamas County and portions of the Happy Valley, Pleasant Valley, and the area around it.

Tri-City Water Resource Recovery Facility Outfall Project

The capacity of the existing Tri‐City outfall is approximately 75 MGD and is expected to be exceeded as flows increase as projected. The capacity of the new outfall will be higher, provide improved mixing over the existing outfall and have sufficient capacity for decades to come.

Willamette Pump Station and Force Main Capacity and Condition Improvements Project 

The existing Willamette Pump Station and Force Main, which were constructed 1986, have served the West Linn community well. However, improvements and upsizing are needed for WES to continue to provide a resilient, reliable sanitary sewer system to serve our community now and in the future.

Past Projects

Storm System Master Plan

Capital Improvement Plan cover The Storm System Master Plan (SSMP) provides a flexible framework for storm system infrastructure operations, maintenance, and expansion to improve the quality of surface water. The Known Issues Atlas maps the locations of identified stormwater system issues, such as water quality, flooding, erosion, and maintenance problems.

Surface Water Projects

3-Creeks Protected Area Floodplain Enhancement

WES owns the 3-Creeks Protected Area, where Mt. Scott, Phillips and Deer (Dean) Creeks come together on 89 acres in Northern Clackamas County. WES is working on the final plans to enhance floodplain processes and the existing natural floodplain area, construct wetlands and floodplain terraces to increase flood storage, improve fish and wildlife habitat, restore wetlands, and restore natural floodplain function.

Carli Creek Water Quality Project

WES constructed the Carli Creek regional water quality facility to remove pollutants in runoff from developed industrial lands in the Clackamas Industrial Area. The project redirected urban runoff through a newly constructed treatment wetland to reduce negative impacts of high storm flows and pollutants. Ongoing work may include irrigation, weed management, removing/managing sediment, managing water flow, vegetation monitoring and statistical analyses.

Detention Pond Repair/Rehab

Detention pond repair/rehab includes removing silt and overgrown vegetation from detention ponds to return the ponds to their original design. Since the original installation, many ponds have become overgrown with vegetation. The pond bottoms are filled with vegetation and silt making them ineffective for stormwater treatment.

Drainage System Modifications

 

Stormwater System Repairs and Upgrades

Projects include small drainage and retrofit projects that restore or enhance the functional capacity of the storm system. Projects may include work to improve drainage issues, installing small low-impact development facilities such as rain gardens as retrofits, and repairs to infrastructure such as previously installed restoration projects.

Upper Kellogg Capital Improvements Projects (funded by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA))

The purpose of this project is to reduce flooding and improve habitat along Kellogg Creek between SE Clackamas Road and SE Thiessen Road by removing or replacing culverts and stream crossings and naturalizing a concrete channel. The project includes SE Clackamas Road Drainage Infrastructure, Aldercrest Culvert Replacement & Kellogg Creek Restoration, and Thiessen Culvert Replacement & Kellogg Creek Restoration.

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