CRESWELL – It’s widely known by Creswellians on the west side of town that the City is working to update its wastewater system to abide by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)’s environmental mandates, but there is now momentum for this small town to join in on the County’s regional plan.
Last Thursday, Aug. 1, mayor Dave Stram led a meeting at the Creswell Community Center to connect with key players and initiate the possibility for Creswell to find its solution to an environmentally-sound wastewater system with Lane County partners.
“If we don’t do this, what Creswell’s doing is a Band-Aid because there’s going to be the next time, and we won’t be able to do what (DEQ) says because we discharge to a ridiculously small ditch,” said Michelle Amberg, Creswell city manager. “We will never meet the environmental (requirements) ever. Regional is really the solution from an environmental standpoint.”
It seems the group’s consensus was that the best solution for Creswell to address the environmental impacts of its effluent waste would be to collaborate with the County, but some were concerned that there may not be enough time for these agreements to be made since Creswell’s deadline to have a facilities plan to the DEQ is Dec. 1.
“We can print money, but we can’t print time,” said Patt Farr, Lane County commissioner. He later addressed DEQ’s Mary Camarata regarding the potential for leniency on the Dec. 1 deadline: “Mary, you said something that I wrote down and that was: ‘If Lane County needs more time, we potentially could give Creswell more time.’”
Prior to concluding the meeting, Stram set out to continue having conversations with important players from the Cities of Eugene and Springfield as well as people from the County as well.
The Chronicle will continue to update readers as more information becomes available.
