Dried out, the lower pond at Talking Water Gardens looked like this when I stopped there on a bike ride on April 24.
The future of Albany’s Talking Water Gardens remains uncertain this spring. But if a claim made in a court filing is true, there’s a potential pathway to resume their use as part of the wastewater treatment plant.
For the second summer in a row, the city plans to pump water into the Gardens’ ponds from Cox Creek. A new pump has been ordered.
Why a new pump? Kristin Preston, operations manager in Albany Public Works, explains:
“Last year we rented a pump and a generator that City staff had to fuel every day, monitor closely and only run during the workday. The pump was troublesome and time consuming, and the diesel generator was very loud. We decided to purchase a different pump, hook it up to electricity, and connect it to our automation system. We are just waiting on the pump (made in Germany) which has been delayed due to supply chain issues, which we are also experiencing with other projects. Unfortunately, it is dry out there, but we hope it will rebound once we start pumping.”
In the meantime, city officials decline to answer questions about long-term plans for Talking Waters because of pending litigation.
The litigation began in 2017 when Albany sued CH2M, the engineering firm that designed Talking Water Gardens, for millions of dollars over the fact that some of the pond water leaks underground. (The city’s cost estimate to fix the leaks has soared up to $140 million in the sixth amended complaint, filed last year.)
The Water Gardens, built with the intention of cooling and further clarifying treated wastewater before discharge to the Willamette River, were completed in 2012. Shortly after that they were found to leak.
The Department of Environmental Quality considers the leaks an unauthorized discharge to the waters of the state and has fined the city a nominal amount. Unable to prevent the leaks, the city quit pumping water from its sewage treatment plant to the Gardens in November 2024. The treated effluent now goes straight into the river instead.
The lawsuit remains pending before Judge Michael Wynhausen in Linn County Circuit Court. He has scheduled a hearing for July 27 on CH2M’s latest motion, filed Feb. 24.
In that filing, lawyers for CH2M claim that the “DEQ has invited the city to apply for a modification of its discharge permit to add the Gardens.”
If that’s true, it would be a chance to resolve the controversy. The city would seek the modification, the DEQ would accept the leaks as part of the authorized discharge, the Water Gardens would have water again, the waters of the state would be no worse off, and the litigation would be over.
So is it true? City Attorney Sean Kidd said city officials can’t comment because of the pending litigation.
I have also asked the DEQ. The agency has not responded so far.
Unless the lawsuit is settled, it will eventually go to trial. But a trial date is not in sight. (hh)
The DEQ didn’t like the seepage as it doesn’t conform to the original plan of TWG….so the City is okay for the pumping treated effluent- uncooled – into the Williamette, which isn’t as beneficial of a solution as TWG. What a messed up situation. Love my country…just perplexed by government bureaucracy. :)
Supply-chain problems on receiving the pump from Germany? Of course. Those problems are ramped up due to Trump’s war, but no one at the Albany City government will say that!
The DEQ sucks. How are leaks worse than the water flowing directly into the river?
What did we ever do to deserve this???? Our tax dollars being spent by the State to demand that the tax dollars that we spent before not be made use of to comply with rules that another state group, funded by our tax dollars made up, that……… do not really help the system, so we use even more tax dollars to apply for an exemption to the rules made using our tax dollars by people who want rules followed instead of looking at the efficacy of the system that the tax dollars made………………. You can’t make this s*** up, no wonder people hate Government.
Yup…i knew orange man bad would be the main factor…No kings just a small factor this time….Let’s see…..who spent the 22 million….not orange man….oh my
“who spent the 22 million….not orange man….oh my
True…”orange man” has only wasted billions & billions… I’ll take Albany’s spending any day over feds… OH MY