Water Environment Services

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

• Install the BMP Sizing Tool
• User's Guide for the BMP Sizing Tool

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

• Children’s Clean Water Festival
• Clackamas Water Education Team
• Clackamas River Water Providers
• Tualatin River Watershed Partners for Clean Water
• Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership
• Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors
• John Inskeep Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College

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

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

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)

Report problems such as a sewer spill, illegal dumping into a storm drain or sewer odor from our facilities.

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!

As a result of a federal government (Environmental Protection Agency) mandate, we implemented an industrial pretreatment program in 1986.

Direct services provided by the program include industrial permitting, facility inspections, sampling, laboratory analysis and enforcement. Indirect services include: development of local limits, updating rules and regulations, load investigations, responding to regulatory authorities and conducting industrial surveys.

Our staff inspects the industrial pretreatment processes of businesses to eliminate illegal discharge of harmful chemicals into the sewage treatment process and collects wastewater samples to ensure industrial compliance with federal and state environmental regulations and local sewer ordinances.

WES Source Control

In addition to the federal and state-mandated Industrial Pretreatment Program, our Industrial Permits Division also administers other programs. These other programs include:

• Septage receiving
• Extra-strength billing
• Restaurant fats, oils and grease (FOG) reduction
• Illicit discharge investigation
• Surface water sampling
• Temperature monitoring
• Mercury minimization activities

Industrial Pretreatment

• Local Discharge Limits
• Permitted Industrial User Determination
• Significant Industrial User Determination

Fats, Oil and Grease

• Preferred Pumper Program
• Best Management Practices for Fats, Oil and Grease
• Restaurant Inspection Checklist for Fats, Oil and Grease

Septage Receiving

• Septage Program Hauler Procedures
• Industrial User and Septage Fees