Public Works director to present water recharge option to Sandy City Council

By Brit Allen, The Sandy Standard

A solution to Sandy’s growing wastewater treatment needs has long been a work in progress, and several options for a permanent fix have been explored over the years. 

This answer to how the city will treat the amount of wastewater produced as the population grows has become increasingly vital. A history of DEQ violations led to a temporary moratorium on new sewer connections in the city in 2022. And the community only continues to grow. 

In 2021, the city began investing into repairs to the existing treatment plant to prevent water from overwhelming the system during storms, which could lead to unplanned discharges of treated water. $31 million was invested into plant improvements and infiltration and inflow reduction, which have bought the city some more time, though it is limited.

This past winter, the city was proud to say that because of these improvements there were no volume-related permit violations. 

That said, an increase in capacity for the city’s wastewater system is still required, and various ideas have been floated and explored. 

As of last year, what appeared to be the most viable option was building a pipeline to a neighboring municipality’s plant. Primarily, the city was exploring a relationship with Gresham. 

According to the Sandy Clean Waters project webpage, all options considered included:

• Doing nothing

• Upgrading the existing wastewater treatment plant

• Increasing irrigation of local nurseries 

• Letting treated wastewater soak into the ground

• Temporarily storing untreated or treated wastewater

• Relocating discharge to Deep Creek

• Sending wastewater for treatment to another Clackamas County treatment plant 

• Relocating discharge to the Sandy River

• Sending wastewater for treatment to Gresham.

Of these, the choices deemed to have the highest chance of success were relocating discharge to the Sandy River or sending wastewater to Gresham.

Back in 2021, the idea of recycling or recharging water was also brought to the city’s attention. At that time, it was not a viable option in Oregon. But that has changed very recently.

Legislation in 2025 has removed barriers to recharging groundwater for the sake of ensuring the state has enough water going into the future, as climate changes lead to lower snowpacks and drier years.  

At the Sandy City Council meeting on May 4, Public Works Director AJ Thorne will present an amendment to the department’s facility plan to the Council, complete with a recommendation to explore groundwater recharging as the primary option for increasing the city’s wastewater system’s capacity. With this system, the water would be treated and then either be pumped into a shallow dispersed drainage system, or injected deep within an aquifer. This has yet to be fully determined. 

“We’ll end up with a system that works in addition to what we currently have,” Thorne explained. “Step one will be improving treatment in our treatment plant. And from there we will be building a groundwater recharge system that is early in the design phase at this point. We have an ideal location and we have a deep versus shallow option, but much more research is required to get that in place.”

The plan presented to Council on May 4 won’t be voted on for adoption until June. 

“With this system in place, it allows to, in the very short term, fix our shoulder season issues,” Thorne added, meaning the city has time to ensure there aren’t any more unseasonal discharges of treated water outside of what’s allowed by DEQ. “As Sandy grows, this system will become more and more an integral part of our discharge (should it be the option approved by Council).” 

City Manager Tyler Deems explained that common criticisms of other options explored to address the city’s wastewater treatment needs have been that people “don’t want to be beholden to another city,” and also the cost associated.

“Council and staff also share the concerns about costs,” Deems said, and the recharge option could potentially save the city and the rate payers tens of millions of dollars. “Part of this process has been to explore every viable solution, not just in terms of how technically it can be completed, but how fiscally can it be completed.” 

Information on how to attend a Sandy City Council meeting — in person or virtually — can be found online at ci.sandy.or.us.