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Salem, Oregon
Background
Salem is the capital of Oregon and its third largest city. Its 108,000 residents are supplied
with drinking water from the north portion of the Santiam River, which has a watershed of
490,000 acres stretching from the Cascade Mountains to the city's intake on Geren Island
(in the middle of the river) in the Town of Stayton. The City of Salem does not own any of
the land within the watershed upstream of its intakes. The United States Forest Service
and the Oregon Department of Forestry together own 80 percent of the land in the
watershed; the remainder is privately owned. Salem is currently developing an official
Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) as mandated by the Safe Drinking Water
Amendments. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has taken the lead on
delineation of the watershed, and the city is in the process of gathering data for a
Geographic Information System (GIS) that will help manage this area.
The water system currently has three river intakes that send water to the Geren Island
Treatment Facility, which are fairly close to each other. Because the source water is of
high quality and low turbidity, the only treatment that the raw water requires is slow-sand
filtration. This treatment is effective and only costs one-quarter of the cost of standard
chemical treatment programs. If the raw water quality of the north Santiam River ever
becomes seriously degraded, Salem will have to change treatment technologies, incurring a
much greater cost.
Because the vast majority of land within the watershed of the north Santiam River is
forested and there are few roads through much of the area, there is only a small risk of
contamination to the water source. In 1997, the Salem Public Utility entered into a five-
year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Department of
Agriculture's Forest Service and the Willamette National Forest to maintain the high
quality of the water in the Santiam River. To date, the MOU, titled "North Santiam River
Cooperative Water Quality Monitoring Program," has involved a joint study between the
agencies of the relationships between the forestry use trends in the federal and state lands
and turbidity (a measure of cloudiness) in the water of the Santiam River.
Local Involvement and Developing the Protection Plan
Several public meetings that have been held on the developing SWAP have served to provide the
public with information on the need to protect water supplies. Water quality issues are often
discussed at city meetings that are open to the public. Watershed and water protection
information are available at the city's Public Works website (http://www.open.org/~spubwork/).
Finally, Salem's Community Development Department has formed a Natural Resources program
that develops educational programs for students, as well as a video that is available as an
instructional tool. Volunteer opportunities for watershed protection include restoration projects,
storm drain stenciling, and an Adopt-A-Stream program.
Management Measures
Although the local SWAP has not been completed yet, Salem does have protection and
management measures in place to preserve the quality of its drinking water. A state law called
the "Three Basin Rule" applies to the north Santiam River and two other rivers in the region.
The rule recognizes the pristine quality of the three rivers, and prohibits any surface water
discharges (for example, from wastewater treatment plants). The only acceptable forms of
wastewater disposal are subsurface discharge to leaching fields or irrigation of areas away from
the rivers with spray-head mechanisms. This effectively curtails the development of available
land within the watershed by making wastewater disposal prohibitively expensive. The rules
were clarified and streamlined in 1995, when a copper mining company proposed an operation
within the watershed. Eventually the project died because of the anticipated high cost of
wastewater disposal through the Three Basin Rule.
Contingency Planning
In 1994, Salem updated its master plan for the water system, evaluating other potential sources of
drinking water and reviewing the river's susceptibility to contamination. The 20-mile distance
between the water treatment plant and the city is the greatest concern. There are two pipelines
that carry water from the plant, and they are at risk of failing in the event of earthquakes. To
compensate, the city has, within its limits, one modern aquifer storage and recovery system (a
ground water well) and several older wells. These are not normally used with the surface water
supply but, in an emergency, they could be pressed into service. In addition, Salem maintains
service connections with its sister city, Keizer, that can be used in case of emergency.
Measuring Program Effectiveness
Information gathered under the auspices of the North Santiam River Cooperative Water Quality
Monitoring Program is used to link trends in forestry activities with water quality. This indicator
is particularly important because the USDA Forest Service and the Willamette National Forest
own such a large portion of the watershed. In addition, Salem independently tests water samples
from the Santiam River to analyze dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductivity, temperature, and
turbidity to ensure that there are no major changes in raw water quality.
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For further information contact: |
Tina Schweickert
(503) 588-6211 |
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