Pausing on one of the bridges in Talking Water Gardens on Monday, March 24, 2025.
Dry, sunny and warm. What a combination! For months on end we had not had such a day as Monday. The bike and I made use of the conditions for a springtime tour of Albany’s Talking Water Gardens.
“Will you find out what the plans for Talking Water Gardens will be for this year?” someone asked me via email last week. “It used to be the pride and joy of the City, but since the water has been turned off, the place is pretty sad. Wondering what is planned for the place. Can you find out?”
I put the question to Chris Bailey, public works director for the City of Albany.
“We are in the same place we were the last time we spoke,” she replied. “The city cannot put treated effluent into TWG [Talking Water Gardens] because it would cause a violation of our NPDES [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] discharge permit. We are working on a temporary pump setup to keep the wetlands operating during the summer while we wait for the litigation to be resolved.”
You may recall that in 2019, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the City of Albany $5,400 over leaks from the constructed wetlands, and the agency ordered the city to find a way to stop the leaks. Last December the city settled this “compliance case” by no longer pumping treated wastewater through the wetlands before discharging it to the Willamette River.
The litigation mentioned by Bailey is the lawsuit Albany filed against the designers of the wetlands. I recapped all this in a couple of stories in December. As a refresher, here’s a link to the second story.
On my ride through Talking Waters Monday, I encountered a few walkers who appeared to be enjoying the surroundings even though some of the ponds were all but dried up and the waterfalls were still.
And here’s more of what I saw:
This pond still had open water.
Can you spot the two ducks in the middle of all that duckweed?
In the background, an expanse of dried reeds — and the Portland & Western’s Millersburg rail yard.
Albany irrigates all of its other parks with treated water. If this place is really a valuable asset, why not fill it with finished (treated) water?
I thought it was treated water going into the garden to cool it off before it goes into the river, but the EPA doesn’t like the 3% leak rate so shut it off. Perhaps Mr. Woods will enlighten me where I am wrong.
There might be a slight difference between treated drinking water and treated wastewater, don’t you think?
Gee Hasso, how do you get treated drinking water out of a sewage plant?
You don’t.
I’ve tried to enlighten you Al, but your bulb just doesn’t work.
Hasso has the right answer.
Did you see any snakes? I’ve been at TWG many times and haven’t seen any, but a friend went recently and saw one! I have a snake phobia!
Thank you for your updates on Albany. Enjoy your reads and pictures.
This is exactly what is wrong with Government at almost every level. DEQ, no brain attached, OMG the ponds are leaking aaaaaaggggggh. Where?? thru the sand and soil, what does that have the effect of?? ITS A SAND FILTER YOU IDIOT, SO IT MAKES THE WATER CLEANER… Kind of like when the State Fire Marshal complained about Co2 Cylinders on a loading dock I had, Oh the cylinders could leak during a fire. OMG and what effect would that have??? IT WOULD PUT OUT THE FIRE!!!!!! Government agencys do stupid stuff like draining Green Peter Reservoir for the Salmon while killing hundreds of thousands of Salmon while they do it. and then pat themselves on the back…
Hope this gets resolved soon.
People need to care, every opinion counts.
Animals, plants and humans need pure the life source.
Thank you to all the volunteers whi put time out there.
Health help happiness
Pesce