After a delay of more than a year because of a water reservoir issue related to a concrete pour, Philomath’s construction of a new water treatment plant may finally be on the horizon.
Chris Workman, city manager, said he anticipates a request for proposals for building the plant to go out by the end of September. This latest estimate comes after the Philomath City Council earlier this week approved a $2.7 million membrane filtration system.
“Right now, we just awarded the RFP for the filtration system so now we’ll be able to finalize the design and once the engineers have the design finalized and know exactly what we’re building and are ready to pull the actual building permits, then they’ll release the RFP and get a contractor on board to actually build the facility,” Workman said. “And that’ll put the time frame in place on when it’ll start and when it’ll be done by.”
The project’s long delay was caused by an inadequate concrete slab that was poured June 28, 2023, as part of the construction of a $4.2 million water reservoir.
“That really derailed it about a year — that concrete that got poured to having to get the attorneys involved and negotiating on what the needed repair was and who’s going to do it and who’s going to pay for it and when it was going to be done,” Workman said. “I’m just glad they’re finally on site and getting the repair done.”
Kevin Fear, Public Works director, said repairs on the concrete slab started a couple of weeks ago with the expectation that they will be completed by the end of this month.
Once that happens, Fear said, “We can kind of get back on track and that allows Westech Engineering to continue designing the plant now around the filtration equipment that we will be purchasing tonight.”
The City Council unanimously approved the purchase with Aria Filtra.
Peter Blumanthal, of Westech Engineering, praised the company’s record with the water filtration systems.
“Aria Filtra is a well-known company — they make really good equipment,” Blumenthal said. “That’s important for the city because this is a long-horizon purchase and you deserve a lot of mileage out of a robust and well-constructed plant.”
Aria Filtra’s systems have been installed in various other plants in Oregon, most recently in Bend, Blumanthal said, as well as smaller communities comparable to Philomath such as Cottage Grove, Creswell, Jefferson and St. Helens.
Workman said it’s possible that work on the water treatment plant could occur over the winter.
“I honestly don’t know how much work they’re going to be able to do or want to do through the winter,” Workman said. “It’s a prefabricated metal building, it’s going on an existing asphalt slab that we need to pour a foundation for but they’re not going to be out in the mud. I think it’s a project that they can work on through an Oregon winter but I don’t know that for sure … they might give them more time.”