How Salem's water will be improved by a sewer project 60 miles away in Detroit

When visitors arrive in Detroit, they take in breathtaking views of picturesque tall evergreen trees in the surrounding mountains and the glistening body of water that is Detroit Lake.

And then they see the blue port-a-potties around town.

Most resort communities would not want portable restrooms as part of their landscape, but they are a reality of life in the Santiam Canyon where there is no sewer system and residents and businesses rely on septic systems, many of which are in need of replacement.

The idea of a joint sewer district in Detroit, Gates, Idanha and Mill City is nothing new, but the idea has moved forward in the past three years with a council of representatives of the involved government entities.

“I’ve lived up here for almost 40 years now. They’ve been talking about it ever since I came up,” Idanha mayor Jeff Yohe said.

How will it impact Salem?

The long-dreamt-of joint sewer system in small towns an hour’s drive east could have huge implications on Salem.

Salem gets its drinking water from the North Santiam River, which is downstream of Detroit Lake and the rural communities.

Studies have found improperly treated sewage and septic tank runoff can cause toxic algal blooms, such as the ones at Detroit Lake last summer that led to repeated do-not-drink advisories in Salem.

“I don’t want to be drinking water that will be harmful to me,” said Danielle Gonzalez, Management Analyst with Marion County. “I think everybody in Salem, in 2018, experienced that. We’re trying to mitigate that as best as we can.”

The initial estimate from a feasibility study is the joint sewer district would cost $96 million.

A sewer system has the potential to impact thousands of people as cities like Salem, Stayton, Turner and Albany get drinking water from the river and hundreds of farmers get water for irrigation from it as well.

Gonzalez said hundreds of permits to replace septic tanks at houses and businesses in the Santiam Canyon have been received by Marion County Public Works since 2010

In some of the properties, the lot sizes are too small to put in a new septic tank or their soil type is not correct, and the applicants aren’t getting permits for replacing them.

Eventually, people will have no choice but to leave.

“If we don’t invest then what happens?” Gonzalez said.

What would the sewer system include?

Mill City has a sewer system in place, the only one of four cities involved in the project that has one.

But the system in Mill City is 24 years into its 25-year lifespan – though that system is still not paid off – and will need fixes or improvement soon.

More:Detroit Lake reaches ‘full’ water level. How long will it last?

“They’re at the point where your components are getting towards the end of what they consider end of life,” Gonzalez said. “We have no actual information right now that there’s anything that’s failing or anything like that, but Mill City understands that they’re going to have to make some significant investments.”

In theory, the new system would tie sewer from houses in Gates into the treatment facility in Mill City and another would be built in Idanha and all of Detroit would be tied in there.

Part of Mill City, Gates and Idanha are in Linn County, meaning Linn County has a stake in the project as well.

The original plan included tying Lyons in with Mill City and Gates, but it was ruled out.

As Lyons is exclusively on the Linn County side of the North Santiam River, if the city were included, too much real market value would be on the Linn side, and that county would have to take the lead in setting up a special district.

“It became a little political, a little maneuvering, a little bit of leveraging,” Gonzalez said.

More:Marion County joins lawsuit on Detroit Dam project

Lyons, however, could be added later.

Economic struggles in the Santiam Canyon

Many of the rural communities have struggled since the logging industry decliined in the 1980s.

Detroit is the only one of the cities where the economy has rebounded, and that is due to tourism.

But that tourism relies on Detroit Lake, which has had recent struggles with water volume and quality.

Idanha and Detroit are getting new water treatment systems and miles of new lines from federal grants and loans – as Gates did a few years ago – but a joint sewer system could have a bigger impact.

“It’s going to be a real challenge,” Gates public works superintendent Greg Benthin said.

Sisters was in a similar situation not long ago.

Since a new sewer system was completed in 2002, the city has boomed.

In 2000, the city 52 miles from Idanha had 959 people. By 2010 the population jumped to 2,038 and by 2017 it had 2,701 residents.

The median income in Sisters has jumped to $56,809 in 2017 from $35,000 in 2010 as industries have come to town.

The hope is the same phenomenon would happen in communities like Idanha.

“If we can bring that into this area, we can get some industry in here,” Yohe said.

Impact on businesses

There is abundant, affordable land within the growth boundaries of Gates and Idanha that could be utilized for industry, but without sewer systems, most businesses can’t come to the towns.

In Detroit, businesses like Mountain High Grocery pay for port-a-potties outside their stores as their septic systems can’t handle the current need.

There are buildings on Main Street in Detroit not utilized because they can’t get a permit to be occupied by a full-time employee because they can’t get a permit to replace their septic tanks.

One of the few new businesses to open in the Santiam Canyon in recent years was Santiam Ice Company, which opened in Idanha in 2013.

Scott Lunski, who also owns Detroit Lake Marina, said the building which Santiam Ice Company occupies previously was a mill and was fairly new with a new septic system when he started the business.

At Detroit Lake Marina, there is room to expand the marina, but the constraints of not having a sewer system prevent that from happening.

“I couldn’t open a huge restaurant because there’s not enough septic,” Lunski said. “We have the space to add on, we just can’t do it without having sewer.”

Due to the three-basin rule – which prohibits treated wastewater from being discharged into the Santiam, McKenzie and Clackamas rivers – the group has to look at alternatives of how to discharge treated water.

 “They’re limited in their ability to grow because of the DEQ rule, and that’s in place so that the water stays clean for the cities,” said Rebecca McCoun, executive director of the North Santiam Watershed Council.

Each of the involved cities has been involved in getting to this point as they have representatives in the monthly planning meetings, but to take the next step, a special district must be formed.

If everything went according to plan, the sewer system could be in place in seven years.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler