News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters City Councilor Gordon Petrie does not believe Sisters needs a sewer.
"To me, when it comes to sewers, a 'need' is health-related and anything else is a 'desire,'" Petrie said in a workshop Monday, February 16.
Petrie noted that no evidence of groundwater contamination has been found in Sisters, and that it is impossible to contaminate the city wells because they lie upstream from Sisters.
"I don't think sewage flows uphill," Petrie said. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous to say Sisters' sewage can contaminate our wells."
Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce Manager Stephen Shunk asked Petrie if he thinks it is all right to contaminate groundwater downstream of the city.
"I'd say, in this case, yes," Petrie responded. "If you look at the geology... it's going to go into Lake Billy Chinook and you'll have dilutions in the billions and billions. In our case, I'm not concerned about it."
Dick Nichols, of the Department of Environmental Quality, noted that state law requires the protection of all groundwater, and that if Sisters is found to be responsible for contamination anywhere, the city will be held accountable.
Petrie chastised the city for exaggerating the number of septic failures in Sisters. He cited figures provided by the Deschutes County Sanitarian that show 37 failures over a 46-month period. Petrie calculates the septic failure rate at 9.6 per year.
A monthly newsletter from the city cited a failure rate at 20 per year.
"That's twice the rate," Petrie said. "In other words, we're getting bad information, at times from the county and from the city."
Petrie argued that failure rates are actually declining as people become more aware of the need to take care of their systems.
"I think people are becoming more and more aware of - let's say the threat - of a sewer and are looking after their septic systems in a little better fashion."
Councilors Sheryl Whent and Kathy Pittman believe that there are more septic problems than the numbers reflect, because many failing systems are going unrepaired.
Pittman cited anecdotes about homes where sewage backs up into the house or where it lies on the ground.
"I think there a lot more failures than people realize," Pittman said.
But Petrie wants to see accurate numbers, which he believes have not been forthcoming.
Independent consultant Vergie Ries, whom the city hired as an information specialist on the sewer issue, pledged to come up with those numbers.
Ries will create and meet regularly with a focus group to enhance public involvement. She will also provide newsletters for city residents and act as a neutral facilitator of city workshops regarding the sewer.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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