The City of Cottage Grove recently applied for a grant with the Oregon Health Authority to help update its Drinking Water Protection Plan. The city is hoping to be prepared for water-related emergencies and learn from 2018 when cyanotoxins, a harmful algae, entered Salem’s water system.
Drinking Water Protection Plans help make sure that a city’s drinking water is disinfected and safe to drink. The plan needs to be updated every couple of years to ensure that it can address changes happening in the city or other environmental factors, such as microplastics, cyanotoxins, and PFAs (forever chemicals).
For Cottage Grove, changes included a possible risk of harmful algae blooming in Dorena Lake, which is upstream from the city’s water intake facility on the Row River, as well as ash from 2020’s wildfires that made it harder to clean filters. The city currently operates under the 2015 Drinking Water Protection Plan.
According to Ryan Kimball, the Water Protection Superintendent at Cottage Grove, the city checks for cyanotoxins and harmful algae blooms every two weeks from May through October. Although the city has not detected anything yet, Kimball noted that they do not have the infrastructure to handle things if toxins do hit the water.
“As of right now, we don't have the most effective means to treat that in place,” said Kimball. “We haven't had any positive hits, so that's been good. But moving forward, we would like to be able to have somewhat, some way to treat that in the event that we do get a hit.”
Ultimately, Kimball said the grant–if awarded–would help prepare the city for any drinking water emergencies.
“And that's ultimately what we're doing, is trying to produce the safest drinking water that we can,” said Kimball. “So it just puts us in a better position to handle pretty much anything that could come at us at this point.”
