Crescent Sanitary District (CSD) in Northern Klamath County services 322 homes and businesses in Crescent and Gilchrist, Oregon. CSD is just 2.5 years old, and the original construction budget was estimated to be “no more than 6 million dollars”, however the project ended up costing twice the amount.
To date, 12 million dollars has been spent, which is a budget overrun of 100% due to scope creep, adjustable-rate loan interest increases, faulty initial system design, and COVID restrictions, which interrupted and slowed down construction and day to day operations.
Single phase sewer pumps (Less than 3 year old) keep failing at the Crescent Sanitary District in North Klamath County, Oregon. Photo by Crescent Sanitary District
Originally the sewer system was to be constructed only for the town of Crescent, which had homes with aging but functioning sewers. During the construction, Gilchrist’s sewer lagoons, built between the 1940-1950’s were found to be failing. The State of Oregon asked CSD to add the town of Gilchrist into Crescent’s sewer construction plans.
The residential monthly bill was originally slated to be $38.00. In September of 2021, then President, Kim Mathers and VP, Doris Allphin (who is no longer with CSD) met with DEQ and OBDD with their concerns. At that time, they were told verbally by Oregon State representatives at the meeting, the bottom line is “We will be here to help in every way we can, and we will not let you fail.”
The construction of the wastewater sewer has proved over and over to have issues and in the opinion of the current CDS board members, (Scott DeCarlo, Marvin Hicks and Duffy Caldwell), the engineering firm left CDS with a very expensive hornets’ nest to replace with no accountability on their end or answers to why they developed and designed the project as they did.
UNDER-ENGINEERED
In total, 14 of the 16-sewage grinder pumps the system engineers recommended and installed were single phase. Three have since failed and had to be converted to/replaced with 3 phase pumps, which are appropriate for the size of pipes. The single-phase pumps were grossly and irresponsibly under engineered, and should have been 3 phase pumps from the start!
NO WARRANTIES
Unfortunately, the failed pumps were not covered under warranty and the pumps were outdated, so manufacturers could/would not fix them. The cost to replace and upgrade the faulty pumps to 3 phase was about $20,000 each.
NO REDUNDANCY
Each of the lift station and pumps were constructed differently; electrical, pumps and materials, instead of constructing our 8 lift stations the same. For future emergency or replacement inventory we need to have 8 different pumps and electrical and materials for each lift station. Another major issue and expense is the electrical for the lift stations. The largest lift station has 60 hp pumps wired at 230 volts drawing 1100 amps at start. Should have been wired for 440 volt, cutting start amps in half.
NO REMOTE AUTOSTART
The 125K generator will not start the pumps in automatic mode because the generator purchased over amps, so they must have another employee stand there to start and stop the pump in manual mode, which requires two people to be onsite just to run the generators.
Currently CSD is working with DEQ, OBDD, Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) and Oregon Business to renegotiate the rates on current loan terms and is exploring private business refinancing options.
SOLUTIONS INVITED PRIOR TO RATE HIKES
In June 2023, CSD’s accountant and consultant determined that residential rates would have to be approximately $150-180.00 monthly to cover the current loans which total approximately $25,000 per month. Rather than go the distance, CDS only increased rates to $79.50 in July 2023.
FOREBEARANCE
To keep CSD from defaulting, Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Oregon Business Development Department (OBDD) have deferred CSD’s payments until December 2024.
Currently DEQ and OBDD are again working with RCAC to do a survey of rates, the cost of which is covered by a grant from RCAC. OBDD and DEQ’s intention is to fully recover their money from the sewer system, and the most straight forward way is through additional residential and businesses rate increases. Thought is being given to adding a sewer pipeline that crosses the river so more homes can be added to the system.
ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES
CSD has many daily operation issues and expenses. Just to name a few; the district’s diesel pickup truck’s transmission and engine are failing, they lack an excavator, a small dump truck, and backhoe and a locate machine for operations, which are needed to begin the septic tank mitigation work. The Gilchrist/Crescent sewer currently does not have a garage to shelter their equipment in freezing temperatures.
COMMUNITY-WIDE DISAPPOINTMENT
State of Oregon agencies assured residents and the board of the Gilchrist/Crescent Sewer District that they would support us, and unfortunately the system they recommended has proved itself to be of subpar design quality and already had key components that have failed and continue to fail in the first 2.5 years of operations. Just this week, another pump had to be replaced.
ADVOCACY LACKING
We got it built, but this sewer system in North County is not paying for itself. I reached out to Klamath County Commissioner Derek DeGroot for assistance. We are waiting for a response and will hopefully hear from him soon.” --Scott DeCarlo, Vice President of CSD
Scott DeCarlo continues, “If some solutions or financial relief are not immediately found for Gilchrist/Crescent, Oregon residents and businesses before January 2024, the new commissioners or reelected incumbent may find that their first order of business is to manage a challenged municipal wastewater system way up in the North part of the Klamath County.”
LESSONS LEARNED
Small town wastewater treatment systems rarely pencil under 500 homes. We have many challenges which have caused CSD to loose employees, as well as, valuable board members.
Since May 2023 two board members quit, and in December 2023 the Crescent Sanitary District President stepped down after being in office for 9 months. Luckily, another community member joined the board so that CSD can again conduct meetings with a quorum. Currently CSD has 3 voluntary board members who are giving their all to sort out this new system for these two towns. The office is understaffed.
The average household income in Crescent, Oregon is between $22,000 and $25,000, with a large number who are on disability and fixed incomes. Residents and businesses are legitimately angry…especially those who had functioning septic systems.” -- Duffy Caldwell, CSD board member.
$400,000 WORTH OF WORK REMAINS
Crescent’s septic systems were not failing like Gilchrist's sewer system. They were promised around $38/$48 a month in the beginning. To top it off, 200 homes still have old sewer tanks unmitigated which must be decommissioned. The cost is approximately $2000 to decommission each of the 200 septic tanks, so the district still has $400,000 of future work to do with no funds and little equipment to do it with. The decommissioning cost was supposed to be in the original loans and grants budget, however, when the time came to proceed, CSD found it was not written into the contracts.
“All at CSD have put in a tremendous amount of time and extra work, diligently researching for solutions, and educating themselves in many areas. However, this group of volunteer board members feels like they have about come to the end of what our small-town board and employees can do with this broken, poorly designed system Oregon State agencies guided us to construct and install. Maybe raising rates solves DEQ and OBDD issues, but our community will be devastated.” -- Scott DeCarlo, Vice President of CSD
This isn’t a water & sewer bill; this is just a sewer bill! Another significant rate hike looms. Some of our disabled Vets, families and retirees on fixed incomes may to have to choose between keeping their homes, eating, or paying their sewer bill each month, which may rocket north of $180 in the near future.
"We receive many phone calls regarding just this. Our community is angry, CSD and its board members would like to resolve this once and for all. We are not looking to borrow more money; we are not looking to put a band-aid on issues, and then waiting for the band-aids to fail again. We are correcting issues properly, everyday with dedicated time and energy. Please help us, advise us, advocate for us and PLEASE join us in finding solutions.” – Marvin Hicks, board member.
The current board of 3 were not part of this build and are doing the best they can. If you'd like to step up and be a volunteer or volunteer board member, get in touch with CSD. Two board positions are open presently.
This article was researched and edited by Todd J. Gessele, owner of Totally INSPIRED Media INC assisted by CSD's current board members. Todd is currently running for Klamath County Commissioner Position 3 (ElectToddG.com). Todd is conservative citizen with a journalistic background who just wants the facts to be known, however ugly, so smart decisions can be made by "We the People, not the elites with an agenda!"