Looking north along the Santiam Canal from the parking lot at Pacific Boulevard and Queen Avenue, on April 13, 2026.
If you looked at the Santiam Canal in Albany in the last day or two, you might have thought that it wasn’t running as full as it usually is.
You were not mistaken. The water level in the canal was about a foot lower than usual. That, anyway, is what it looked like to me on Monday. Turns out there was a reason.
“Our electrician is doing some work related to an air compressor at the Vine Steet water plant and needs the outfall gate completely open while doing the work, drawing the level down,” explained Kristin Preston, operations manager in Albany Public Works, on Monday afternoon. “That’s probably it, and he should be done in a couple of days.”
Speaking of the Vine Street water treatment plant, on March 11 the city council hired a consulting firm to study the plant’s long-term viability. The price tag of the study is $757,470.
The Vine Street plant was built in 1912. It has been modernized since but is vulnerable to a big earthquake.
The consultants, Brown & Caldwell, of Portland, will examine the practicality and cost of upgrading the plant compared to building a new water treatment plant.
The Vine Street plant is fed by the 18-mile Santiam Canal from the South Santiam River and can treat up to 16 million gallons a day. Albany’s other water plant, off Scravel Hill and drawing from the Santiam River, was built in 2005. It can supply 13.9 million gallons a day but can be expanded to handle 16.5 mgd.
Either plant can supply the current water demand in Albany and Millersburg, but both are expected to be needed by 2045 as the area’s population grows. So unless the Vine Street plant can be improved, a new one presumably will have to be built.
All that is in the future. For now, as Preston’s comment about the compressor indicates, they’re fixing things as they come up. (hh)
The canal’s banks are not usually as exposed as this.
Thanks for the info, Hasso.
It would be interesting to know how much money the city of Albany has spent on consultants over the past 10 years. Either water plant can provide the water needed through 2045 but at that point both plants will be necessary per your comments. So for 19 years we have a 100% backup in case one plant goes down. I would think that if I ran the city, I would have built the new plant so it could be expanded as necessary as both plants take water out of the Santaim.
A few questions.
1. What is the cost of maintaining the existing 18 mile canal? Bridges, fencing, cleaning etc.?
2. What is the value of the land that the canal occupies to developers, farmers etc.?
3. Tax revenue that would be generated from sold canal right of way land?
4. Cost of working with Adair Village at Hyak park. They have water rights to more water than they will need for the foreseeable future and then the accompanying infrastuctre to pipe to North Albany and back feed the city across the river?
5. Quality of water from Willamette downstream of Corvallis effluent dump vs 18 miles of farm, industry and city runoff in existing canal?
6. Cost of removing the Vine street plant and then selling the property to recoup expenses.
7. Is the canal an eyesore and safety liability for the city and does it cost insurance money?
8. Cost to fill in the canal?
9. Why do governments hire consultants? I am sure we have smart people employed that know and can answer the questions posed by the governing bodies that are on the payroll already.
Hopefully some of these and other questions are answered for 757 thousand dollars.
Great questions….. I look forward to hearing the answers.
There are 2 large water tanks on ValleyView in North Albany. Does the water for those tanks get pumped across the river from the Vine Street plant? I had just assumed there was a well there, but that is probably not true.
Water stored in the tanks on Valley View Dr. is pumped in. FYI all the water used in North Albany was supplied either by wells and pumps on the users property or from Parker Water System which serviced a large area, The CITY bought the business from Parker Water. Until that time the water was so full of minerals that hot water tanks only lasted 3-4 years before leaking and having to be replaced.
Even though services had a meter we only paid $5.00 per month. I’m not sure when the area encompassed by, roughly, Spring Hill Rd, Hickory and North Albany Rd was annexed to the City but I believe water was piped across to that area then