Westport – A $1 million grant has been awarded for upgrades to the Westport wastewater treatment plant.

The Oregon Economic and Community Development Department announced that Clatsop County, acting as the governing body for the Westport Sewer District, will receive a Community Development Block Grant to design and construct improvements to the community’s sewer plant.

The grant was revealed in a letter to Clatsop County Commission Chairman Richard Lee from Laird Bryan, Infrastructure Manager for the Capital Projects Division for the OECDD.

The facility has been operating out of compliance with rules from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which determined that the facility was discharging too much chlorine.

Improvements will include upgrading the treatment plant and pump stations, and replacing the chlorine disinfection system with an ultraviolet disinfection system.

The gravel bed filtration will be replaced with a textile pod system. The improvements will be done within the existing site and based on the technology employed at the Hebo unit just south of Tillamook.

The county Public Works Department, working with DEQ, is overseeing development of a design by an outside engineering firm. Once that’s completed a contractor will be selected through competitive bidding this fall with construction targeted to finish near the end of the year.

The UV disinfection process is the centerpiece of the project. Elimination of chlorine from the effluent will reduce toxicity to migratory fish runs and allow the district to meet the discharge limitations within its NPDES permit.

The plant has been operating under a memorandum of agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality since May 2001 when the DEQ issued a Notice of Noncompliance.

Total cost for the improvements is expected to come in just over $1.1 million, with the additional financing to come from a loan from the Oregon’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund administered by the DEQ.