Water Environment Services

Water Environment Services

WES Education

Help us protect the sanitary sewer system

Wipes, paper towels and other "unflushables" can create a sewer backup in your home. Flush only toilet paper and protect your home, the sewer system, and the environment.

When it comes to deciding what to flush down the toilet, Stick to the three P’s: pee, poo and toilet paper.

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.

Cleaning out your medicine cabinet? Don’t flush old or unwanted medications down the toilet or drain.

Help us protect the watersheds

Although convenient for cleaning surfaces and equipment, pressure washing can send dirty runoff into the storm drain system. 

Trash on the ground can pollute our waterways. Here's how you can help.

Prevent polluting our streams and underground drinking water supplies.

Learn from KPTV Meteorologist Mark Nelsen in this friendly video reminder from WES, KPTV and our other Clean Water Partners.

Clackamas County has almost 100,000 dogs of all shapes and sizes. The FDA estimates that a dog excretes 0.75 pounds of waste per day. That adds up to nearly 13,000 tons of pet waste in our county per year! 

Keeping your lawn free of weeds involves many choices — some are hazardous to our families, pets and waterways.

Heavy rains and fall leaves can cause high water and increase pollutants reaching our streams and rivers.

The following best management practices are recommended to prevent water pollution at apartment complexes and multi-family housing unit.

Ask your landscape maintenance contractor to use these best management practices to help protect our waters, our environment and those you love.

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Upgrade underway at WES’ Kellogg Water Resource Recovery Facility in Milwaukie

WES is committed to planning for the future, which means proactively taking steps to ensure our facilities, equipment and infrastructure are up-to-date in order to provide state-of-the-art service to our customers.

To meet this challenge, WES is currently upgrading our Kellogg Water Resource Recovery Facility in Milwaukie. The Kellogg facility is undergoing a major refurbishment that is scheduled for completion in 2020. These upgrades will put Kellogg in an excellent position to provide dependable and cost-effective services for the next 20 to 30 years.

Dedicated to being a good neighbor to the community surrounding the Kellogg facility, WES determined that one of the major upgrades needed was to increase odor control. To achieve this, covers were placed on a portion of the aeration basins, which are large tanks that play key roles in breaking down pollutants.
Additional improvements include the replacement of pipes, pumps, electrical systems and other upgrades that will bring the facility up to full operational capabilities.

WES is strategically sequencing and staging the refurbishment project in order to keep the facility fully operational during construction

Photos

Kellogg Digester

Kellogg plant

Touring the facility

Touring the Kellogg plant

Videos

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Constant Contact WES

 
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BMP Sizing Tool

WES, in cooperation with other local jurisdictions, has developed a BMP Sizing Tool to assist developers in meeting flow duration matching requirements customized to Clackamas County conditions. The Tool sizes facilities so that post-development peak flow durations will match the pre-development peak flow durations ranging from 42% of the 2-year to the 10-year flows, as determined by HSPF continuous rainfall model simulation.

The BMP Sizing Tool automates some of the required calculations to support BMP sizing and design for a specific set of stormwater management facility types (See Section 9.0 of User's Guide).

Responses to frequent BMP Sizing Tool questions can be found in Appendix A of the User's Guide, including:

  • Rain gardens, stormwater planters, vegetated swales, and infiltrators are referred to as LID facilities. The BMP Sizing Tool uses different methods for sizing LID facilities (Section 9.2) and detention ponds (Section 9.3).
  • If there are multiple types of post-development surface covers on the site, each of the areas should be delineated separately and entered separately in the BMP Sizing Tool under the Discharge Management Areas tab. 
  • Predevelopment surface conditions should reflect historical conditions (i.e., grass or forest). Even when the pre-development condition is impervious surface, it should be included in the BMP Sizing Tool as grass or forest.
  • The BMP Sizing Tool sizes facilities to manage the 10-year peak flow (based on continuous simulation.) However, WES design standards require conveyance systems to be sized for the peak flow from a 25-year, 24-hour design storm.
  • The BMP Sizing Tool is based on LID principles, including the concept of prioritizing small, distributed surface vegetated facilities. As a guideline, it is recommended that the area draining into a single BMP facility should not exceed approximately 10 acres.

Resources

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Watershed Health Education Program

The Watershed Health Education Program educates youth about the importance of protecting our watersheds. The program makes it possible for local teachers and their students to get out of the classroom and into the field, where they gain hands-on experience making assessments, restoring streamside habitats, and studying the factors that determine healthy rivers and streams. These students then share their knowledge with friends, family and the broader community through presentations and activities, making an even bigger impact on protecting public health and the environment. WES works with partners to educate K-12 students in our community, and some projects span multiple years. To learn more about this program and projects, please contact Gail Shaloum at gshaloum@clackamas.us.

Educational Opportunities

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Stormwater Construction Projects

WES protects watershed health and water quality in communities within northern Clackamas County. WES plans to upgrade several stormwater systems in the community.

This stormwater system improvement work is expected to begin in late August or early September and may take up to four weeks and cause minor traffic disruptions. On weekdays, work hours will be limited to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. If work is necessary on a weekend, the schedule would be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Diamond Court

  • New stormwater pipe 
  • New stormwater treatment manhole
  • Removal of downed trees and vegetation 
  • New maintenance access road

Diamond Court

William Otty Road

  • Removal and replacement of an existing storm drain
  • Add additional storm drain
  • Removal and replacement of storm pipe and catch basin in William Otty Rd.
  • Add maintenance access

William Otty Road

Sunny Way

  • New stormwater pipe 
  • New stormwater treatment manhole
  • Removal of trees and vegetation 
  • Repair pedestrian trail (trail access from Sunny Way will be closed during construction)

Sunny Way

Contact Us
Department Staff
Leah Johanson
Civil Engineer, Senior
503-742-4620
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Report a Spill or Leak

Report sewer or stormwater problems or concerns, such as a sewer spill or illegal dumping into a storm drain.

Monday to Thursday
7:30 a.m.-12 p.m. & 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
503-742-4567
Weekends and after hours503-655-8211
Email 
Monday to Thursday
7:30 a.m.-12 p.m. & 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
wescustomerservice@clackamas.us
Emergency situation? Please use our phone numbers.

Please include the following information:

  • Address or nearest cross street
  • Description of problem
  • Your name
  • Your contact information, including phone number and email address

Your name and contact information will be considered to be submitted in confidence, and the county will not disclose your name or contact information except as required by law.

Thank you for helping us to protect public health and the environment!

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