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Columbia County veterans receive helping hand

Originally published in The Chronicle Vol. 141

October 4, 2023

WILL LOHRE Country Media, Inc.

For the second time in as many years, the St. Helens branch of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) has gathered donations to help local veterans in need.

The donations were then converted into Fred Meyers gift cards, which were gifted to veterans groups.

Rebecca Pickering is the assistant manager of the St. Helens USBC chapter and is one of the fundraiser’s key organizers. Finding ways to give back to those who have served our country has always been something the USBC has prioritized.

Giving back

“I have been association manager since 2009. In the past, we would pass on our donations to the state USBC, most years, we would not get recognized for our donations. Then I heard about sending the donations directly to our national Bowling to Veterans Link (BVL), which I did for a couple of years. BVL has been in place since 1942,” Pickering said. “A couple of years ago, I heard from one of the other associations how they were able to bring the funds back locally, which is what we started last season. By giving the veterans a Fred Meyer gift card, they can use it for gas, food, clothing, or miscellaneous items which they may need.”

Members of the St. Helens and Scappoose Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legion accepted the donation at the Fred Meyer in Scappoose on Sept. 29. The donations are gath-

ered from USBC bowlers in the local community, and the use of funds for gift cards ensures the money is spent locally.

Pickering said that the highlight of the process has been to present the money back to the veterans, who ensure that the funds go to other veterans who have applied for support.

“The highlight in giving back is exactly what you saw today. The local veterans truly appreciate our gesture, and they vet each person prior to giving them a gift card,” Pickering said. “Those receiving the gift cards have put them to good use. Keeping it local is a great feeling vs. sending funds to a national organization, knowing the funds are helping but

Rainier fined

Originally published in

The Chief Vol. 132

October 6, 2023

WILL LOHRE Country Media, Inc.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has once again fined the City of Rainier for wastewater violations, an issue that has been recurring for the city in the past six years.

In a Sept. 28 release, the DEQ issued 19 penalties, with Rainier incurring the highest fine amounting to $31,550. According to a DEQ letter to the city dated Aug. 11, the civil penalty was due to violations of the National Pollutants Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit by the city’s wastewater treatment plant and discharging untreated sewage “into the waters of the state.”

“The main issue with the wastewater treatment facility, it’s basically a lack of separation between stormwater and wastewater,”

Rainier City Administrator Scott Jorgensen said. “What happens is stormwater, especially during heavy rain events, infiltrates and gets into the wastewater system. What [that] does is it gives you an exceedance. Under your permit, you’re allowed a certain threshold, and that puts you over the threshold once you’ve got that stormwater infiltration.”

Violations

In the letter to the city, the DEQ stated that the reason for this penalty was because Rainier “continues to have significant ongoing

issues maintaining compliance” with its NPDES permit. In the past six years, the city has experienced more than 100 Class I violations at its wastewater treatment plant, resulting in three prior enforcement actions.

The letter stated that compliance with the NPDES permit is essential to protecting water quality and discharges of untreated sewage that pose a “significant threat” to public health and the environment.

Between December 2022 and June 2023, Rainier exceeded its permit limits for Total Suspended Solids (TSS) 26 times and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) concentration twice. TSS “means solids in wastewater that can be removed readily by standard filtering procedures in a laboratory,” according to the DEQ website. Examples

don’t know the outcome of how they helped.”

Voices of the veterans

Ashley Taylor is the District Commander of the VFW for District 2 in Oregon. In District 2 the VFW posts are in St. Helens and Scappoose. Taylor is also a member of the American Legion in St. Helens.

Taylor helps facilitate the reception and disbursement of the funds. The fundraiser with the bowling association is to help support veterans ahead of the holidays. Veterans who need assistance apply for support with their service record and what they would use the funds for.

“I love getting involved with veteran organizations

because I work in the veteran service field, so advocacy for helping veterans is my passion professionally, but also personally,” Taylor said. “It’s touching when we find veterans who are in need, and that’s what we’re here for.

I always hear veterans say, ‘No, I don’t want that; it’s not for me. Give it to another veteran.’ If every veteran said that, then we would have no purpose. This is what we’re here for.”

Taylor said that the donations go directly back to veterans in need, and gave an example of one of the people who was helped last year. Taylor said that one of the recipients of aid last year was a young veteran who moved to the area and just needed a helping hand ahead of the

holiday season.

“Because they had relocated, they need a little hand up. And so, how awesome is that, that we’re able to help that veteran family, just with a couple extra bucks to purchase Christmas presents for their kiddos,” Taylor said.

The goal of the veteran organizations is to support veterans in need, and this fundraiser is especially focused on helping folks out during the holiday season. The hope is that those who have been helped or are inspired by the actions of the veteran organizations will then join so they can also help give back.

The reason for donating gift cards is to make sure that the money is spent on essential items that can be purchased at Fred Meyer.

Additionally, Taylor said that the use of gift cards helps put money back into the local economy.

American Legion Commander Mike Sacry said that these donations help veterans at a time when money is tight for many. Sacry also talked about the unique bond that service forges.

“Well, you’re looking at veterans, and you’re looking at brothers and sisters. You have to be a vet to understand it, and it’s so hard to explain the feeling between different veterans,” Sacry said. “Every veteran is different. A lot of veterans come out of different situations doing just fine, a lot of them don’t. With the way the country is going now, there’s money needed everywhere. Money’s just so scarce.”

Sacry also noted that many veterans out there are proud and don’t want to ask for help. So, the organizations want to make sure that they can offer resources to those who are willing to reach out, whether they are a veteran or are reaching out on behalf of a veteran they know.

For Pickering and the bowlers who contribute to the fundraiser, giving back financially is just a small token of thanks to the veterans for their service.

“Each of our bowlers is excited about being a part of this journey. They give from their heart. No one is asked to give more than what they want to give,” Pickering said. “We have a lot to celebrate, as our veterans have contributed a lot for us, so giving a little back is well worth the sacrifices that they have made.”

For those interested in supporting this cause, donations can be made at Oregon Trail Lanes in St. Helens.

for DEQ violations

project with their construction of a bioswale near the city’s boat launch. The bioswale is a trench that filters and treats rainwater before it enters the stormwater and wastewater system.

“Our hope is to be able to do a couple more of these. So, we’ll take this; we’re not going to appeal this fine. We’re going to use it as an opportunity to do another mitigation project,” Jorgensen said. “There’s another area, right in the boat launch area, that we can do right next to [the bioswale] that saves some design work. Because now that we’ve got that [bioswale] in place, we can essentially do the same thing but right next to it.”

of TSS could be inorganic materials or particles like algae and bacteria. BOD generally represents how much oxygen is needed to break down organic matter in water.

In addition to the permit violations, the letter noted that the city discharged undisinfected sewage into the Columbia River on Jan. 3, 2023, and a sanitary sewer overflow event on Jan. 15, 2023, that resulted in the discharge of approximately 20,000 gallons of raw untreated sewage into Fox Creek.

On July 6 of this year, the DEQ conducted an inspection of the wastewater treatment plant, and though they found no violations, they noted a “lack of regular maintenance and housekeeping throughout the facility was apparent” and may be contributing to the effluent violations.

Finding solutions

Something Jorgensen noted about the recurring issues with Rainier’s compliance with DEQ is that the department is willing to work with cities found in violation to mitigate the problems.

“This is something that we take very seriously. We know that there’s a problem, we’re working to take care of it, and DEQ has been great to work with on this,” Jorgensen said. “It’s not an adversarial situation. They know that we have a problem, and they’re working with us to solve it, and it will be solved.”

The city has entered into an agreement with DEQ that would see them come into compliance with DEQ by 2027, according to Jorgensen. One of the steps the city has already taken is an “inflow and infiltration study.”

This is a comprehensive look at the entire system to see what the sources of inflow and infiltration are.

“When you have aging infrastructure like we do, there’s parts that have root intrusion. We’ve been talking with a company that specializes in that, where they put together this liquid, and it goes, and kind of reseals the areas that the root has gotten into the system and the line,” Jorgensen said. “So, some of it’s just repair of portions of lines that needs to be done.”

Jorgensen said that the city has already had a 25 percent reduction in stormwater that is infiltrating their sewer system.

The DEQ also allows those who receive fines to offset a portion of a penalty by funding a supplemental environmental project that improves Oregon’s environment. Rainier has a recent example of a mitigation

Jorgensen said that the issue with the wastewater management system has been a constant focus for the city since he came on board three years ago. The city has been working with its engineer of record and staff to choose the projects that best address the existing issues.

Some of the steps DEQ outlined the city could take to address its issues would be to thoroughly clean the facility, repair or replace the dissolved oxygen meters in aeration channels, and add an alarm to the polymer feed system.

“DEQ has actually been really great to work with on this. Their approach hasn’t been entirely punitive, they want to work with us, and they want to get us into compliance,” Jorgensen said.

“We view it as a partnership with them; we’re working with them to address the issues that we know that we have in our system.”

Will Lohre / Country Media, Inc.

Members of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars accept a donation from USBC’s Rebecca Pickering outside the Fred Meyer in Scappoose on Sept. 29.