For now, warnings about the water at Talking Water Gardens are unnecessary. There is no water.
The Cox Creek Path often takes me past Albany’s Talking Water Gardens, dormant now for the second year in a row. The question is whether this wastewater treatment installation, completed in 2012 at a cost of about $14 million, will ever be used again.
The Water Gardens are shut down because the ponds leaked to groundwater and nearby streams, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality considered the leaks to be an unauthorized discharge.
But, the agency says, in the words of spokesman Dylan Darling, “The City of Albany may submit a permit modification application to DEQ to include the Talking Water Gardens as an additional treatment component, as stated in the recent permit renewal fact sheet.”
Well, I wondered, has the city made use of that opportunity to apply?
No, the city has not. Will it do so?
Says City Manager Peter Troedsson: “The City of Albany intends to retain Talking Water Gardens (TWG) as an important part of the treatment facility, despite DEQ excluding the wetlands from the NPDES permit. As you know, we’re in active litigation with the TWG engineer, CH2M Hill, and I can’t comment any further.”
It’s in a court filing in that lawsuit, a Feb. 24 motion from CH2M lawyers, that I first learned of the possibility that the wetlands might be included in the city’s “NPDES” (for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit.
The city’s new permit for its sewage treatment plant, issued this past winter, includes this:
“Previously, effluent was discharged to an engineered wetland for additional treatment: The Talking Water Gardens (TWG). The proposed permit does not authorize discharge to or from the TWG. DEQ action related to the TWG is addressed in Mutual Agreement and Order WQ M-WR-2018-274, which resulted in discharge to the TWG ceasing on 11/27/2024. At a later time, the City of Albany may submit a permit modification to DEQ to include the TWG as an additional treatment component.”
The DEQ won’t explain — at least not to me — if by “may submit” it meant that the city might possibly do so, or that Albany has the agency’s permission and implied invitation to do so.
“DEQ is not a party to the court filings and doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation,” the agency told me.
Albany sued CH2M over the leaks from the Water Gardens in 2017, asking for damages in the millions. As I reported before, the next hearing in the case is set for July 27.
After that, the likelihood is for more motions, counter motions, and more hearings. All while the Water Gardens sit there, a wasted investment of public funds.
One way to resolve this would be for Albany to apply to modify its NPDES permit, for the DEQ to accept that the ponds leak and grant the application, and for the Gardens to be used according to the original plan. (hh)
Bike rides take me past this spot on the Cox Creek Path often.
Obviously the city would rather continue the lawsuit than apply for a modification of the permit to allow the small leaks which anybody in their right mind would allow.
You make the assumption that the DEQ is reasonable. “May apply” is weasel language to cover the agencies back side. The most likely outcome would be a contigent approval that will require an investment by the city that would cost millions, thus the continued litigation.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop on the Talking Water Gardens.
Just another black eye on spending millions….wish we had that 22 million back…The brick road looks better than Talking Gardens sewer hole …oh my stinky..
Good Grief, get over it.
When I first moved to the area not far from Talking Waters I never knew the the creeks named as the old timers around her always called Cox creek gut creek because Nebregall meat packing dumped the guts from the processing cows into the creek. My neighbors said they went down to the creek and pitchforked suckers in the creek for fun. DEQ must have not been around then I guess
Standing Applause.