Lincoln City operates a water system that meets, and in all cases exceeds, the water quality requirements of the State and Federal regulations for communities of our size. View an annual analysis of the water.

The source of water is in the Schooner Creek Watershed located east of the City of Lincoln City. Water that is not diverted through the intake from the 15.5 mile watershed drains to the Pacific Ocean. Located as near the tidal influence as practical the intake is designed to preserve fisheries habitat. View more information on the Schooner Creek Watershed.

The Water Treatment Plant removes any known harmful organisms, chemical, physical or radiological contaminants. The treatment plant has several separate processes the water travels through before it is pumped to town. They are Raw Water Pumping, Grit Removal, Clarification, Contact Basins, Filtration, Clearwell Storage, Finished Water Pumping. (Please see below for detailed descriptions of these processes.) All of these processes are monitored by the Control System. Should the electrical power supply fail for any reason, the plant can supply its own power, enough to run approximately 50% of capacity through its Auxiliary Power Generator. (The generator details are at the bottom of this page.) Once the water is treated it is distributed to the community via approximately 135 miles of underground Distribution System or stored in the City's Reservoir System. Once distributed to the customer, a meter is placed to account for their water. Meter reading is performed on a monthly basis.

The water system serves 5,356 residential and 832 commercial customers. As a tourist community, planning and operation of the system is exciting. The population swells from a normal daily average of 13,500 to 23,000 on any given Friday evening.

The water district serves an area from sea level, 0 elevation to 260 feet. Those areas above 160 feet have a pump station, (there are six), that boost the pressure for comfortable service. The minimum pressure is determined by the State Health Division and is 20 pounds per square inch. Anyone building a new residence is advised of the potential of pressure lower than they may be accustomed to if they build above 160 feet in the service district. Building two or three stories above ground can further reduce this low pressure.

Raw Water Pumping

• 2 PUMPS have a capacity of 930 gallons per minute each.
• 2 PUMPS have a capacity of 1,860 gallons per minute each.

Water is pumped from Schooner Creek at this pump station site. Only the amount of water necessary to satisfy the demand of the users is processed. Positioned at the foothills of the watershed, 4 pumps are available to transfer water to the water plant for processing. Care is taken to monitor the amount of water in the stream. A gauging station located upstream 2 miles has collected stream flow data for over 20 years. The water pumped is metered for flow and the flow rate is also controlled here. Very small concentrations of chemicals are introduced to assure safe drinking water. The water then travels to the grit removal basin.

Grit Removal

8-million gallons per day capacity

Schooner Creek water is pumped from the raw water pumping station through the rapid mix building to this structure. The creek has a natural abundance of heavy sand flowing within it as well as other debris. The speed of the water (velocity) is slowed down in the grit basin so that heavy sand like material will settle to the bottom and not travel on to the clarifiers. On a scheduled basis the basin is drained and the sand washed out. This basin is also used to direct flow to the three clairifiers as determined necessary by the operators.

Clarification

3 individual units with a capacity of 2100 gallons per minute each.

Up flow clarifiers use small plastic beads as the media to remove small particles and Turbidity. They are washed with raw water and compressed air to maximize resources. This process removes nearly 80% of the material. This enables The final filtration system to operate at a higher flow rate for a longer period of time. This increases efficiency, capacity and is more economical. Once the water passes through the clarifiers it travels on to the contact basins.

Contact Basins

Two basins provide for maximum disinfection of harmful organisms.

Chlorine is introduced to the water after the clarifiers. These basins are baffled with long concrete walls open at one point in each end. This forces the water to travel in an ‘S’ shape through the basin. This slows the water down and allows for greater time for the chlorine to come into contact with any harmful organisms and destroy them. After sufficient time for the chlorine to disinfect the water is then passed through the final filters.

Filtration

4 Multi-Media Gravity Filters

These filters remove bacteria, protozoan and viral organisms to provide safe drinking water. The filters, like the clarifiers are monitored for the time in service, clarity of water produced and amount of material captured. Water travels down through the media and enters a reservoir two stories below the treatment plant. These reservoirs are commonly called a "Clearwell" when they are in a treatment plant.

Clearwell Storage

A 225, 000 gallons reservoir is on site to provide a treated supply for the finished water pump intakes as well as a clarified water source to clean the filters when necessary and additional time for the disinfectant, chlorine, to assure the water is safe. The water enters the clearwell from the final filters through a complex piping system. The room that the pipes are in is known as the pipe gallery.

Finished Water Pumping

• 2 pumps 930 gallons/minute each
• 2 pumps 2082 gallons/minute each

There are 4 pumps that move the water to town. Two, 75 horsepower and two 200 Horsepower pumps capable of delivering 6 million gallons per day to the community. These pumps are referred to as High Service pumps because they lift the water 260 feet in elevation. Reservoirs are monitored for level in the control room. Only the amount of water necessary to fill them and satisfy the demands of the customers is pumped to them. Once the customers demand is met, water is continued to be pumped to fill the reservoirs. After the reservoirs are full the plant can be shut down for a brief period of time. If Schooner Creek is flowing with sufficient water for fisheries and recreational uses as well as customer demand, the plant can run at a higher rate. This minimizes the operators required attendance, reducing potential overtime. There are only three operators, Their normal working hours are 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If the plant requires additional attention, the operators rely first on the 24 hour on call operator to take charge. The other two are on standby.

There are also two 75 horsepower pumps that are used to pump filtered water back through the filters in reverse, cleaning them when necessary. This water use is carefully monitored. There is documented history that establishes efficient water production compared to that which is necessary to wash the filters. Lincoln City's water plant typically requires approximately 3% of the processed water to maintain the filters to continue operation.

All of the pumps through out the plant are monitored by the instrumentation system and can be operated at the central control panel.

Auxiliary Power Generator

A 680 horsepower diesel generator with a capacity of 350 kilowatts is on standby to operate the plant in case of a power outage. The generator can supply power to 75% of the facility in case of emergency. Special equipment monitors the incoming power and automatically switches over to this generator if a problem occurs with the local power provider. Once the local power is restored the automatic equipment returns to the provider and shuts the generator off.

Distribution System

The majority of this system is 6-inch and 8 inch diameter water pipe. The pipe is fed by a transmission line that is 12 inches and larger, up to 24 inches in diameter. There are three reservoirs in town that store a total of 7.25 million gallons. This storage is used to smooth out peak flows and provide additional volume for fire fighting and emergencies. The reservoirs are located at SE 19th, NE 20th and Surf and Roads End. There are 5 pump stations that boost pressure up to higher elevations in town. All of the reservoirs and booster pump station status is monitored at the water treatment plant SCADA system and the Central Control Panel. When the water line passes a residence that requires service, a typical ¾ inch plastic water line is attached and a meter is placed near the property line. Plastics are used primarily in the distribution and service system. This material is more resistant to failure from corrosive attack from the soils and is certainly rust free. The use of plastics is the most cost-effective material in our geographic location. Primarily six people maintain the distribution system. They routinely install new water services, flush the system to maintain fresh water quality, paint fire hydrants and fix leaks.

Meter Reading

Each and every meter is read once monthly for billing purposes. The residence is then billed for that usage after the fact. That means that a residence’s monthly billing will be based upon the monthly usage that was read during that bill's reading cycle. The meter reader is very conscientious and looks for leaks so that the residence can be alerted of any potential problem. This may save the residence unnecessary cost and certainly preserves the natural resource of our source water. The last count of water meters in the system was 6,188. Each meter is checked and has on its register a leak detection indicator. Each meter also has a warranty for accuracy.

In 1997, a program was initiated to replace every meter in the system. This means that every meter is practically new and should be registering correctly.

3 Reservoirs in Town Store 7.25 Million Gallons

The 4.25 million gallon Roads End and 2 million gallon SE 19th St reservoirs supply water to services from sea level to 160ft elevation. The NE Surf reservoir holds 1 million gallons and serves a higher elevation separate from the other two. The purpose of the reservoirs is to help maintain a constant system of pressure, provide water for emergencies, fire protection and ease maximum hourly demand. This allows the water treatment plant to operate at a constant flow rate instead of continually increasing or decreasing flow to match demand. The Roads End and SE 19th St reservoirs are constructed of CORTEN® steel also knows as weathering steel. The chemical composition causes a thin layer of rust to form on the surface increasing resistance to corrosion from atmospheric conditions.

The Lincoln City Wastewater Plant and collection system serves the area from the west side of Neotsu, all of Roads End and south through the Cutler City area. There are over 5,100 customers connected to the system which has 28 lift stations to transport the raw sewage to the treatment plant located in the Taft area of Lincoln City. The geography of Lincoln City with its many elevation changes results in raw sewage being pumped through as many as 5 stations before reaching the treatment plant. Lincoln city has 28 sewage lift stations, 3 storm stations, 74.4 miles of gravity lines, 11.25 miles of force mains, 1,898 manholes, and 5 state certified operators.

Operators for the Wastewater Plant are on-call 24 hours/day 365 days a year to maintain operations. The City has completed upgrades at six of the existing lift stations with more upgrades planned for the near future. This is to keep up with building growth that has taken place since the early 1980s and the aging infrastructure of which some was installed in the early 1960s.

The Cutler City pump station also houses a Tsunami Alert System. The Wecoma lift station and Regatta Ground station double as public restrooms and City Park. As is the case with many coastal cities, flow fluctuations resulting from tourist population and seasonal residents present some unique problems. Weekend tourism and increased population during holidays cause significant increases in plant loads.

In June 2008 and September of 2012 Lincoln City completed two major upgrades to its wastewater facility, called Phase 1A & 1B.

Phase 1A, converted the plant to a 4 basin Sequencing Batch Reactor with an average wet weather design flow of 3.3 Million Gallons per Day. This upgrade also consisted of adding new perforated influent screens for removal of plastics and other trash over ¼” in diameter, a new grit removal system, flow measurement flume, and a new 600Kw emergency generator.

Phase 1B included a digester upgrade for more efficient mixing and aeration, a new digester blower and drum thickener building, two bays of Cloth Fiber Filters followed by a new Ultra-violet disinfection system.

In 2017 a new biosolids centrifuge went online to dewater biosolid before transportation to the landfill.

The screened raw sewage flows to one of four Sequencing Batch Reactor basins where mixing and aeration are used to facilitate the breakdown of waste by naturally occurring microbes. After a batch treatment cycle, mixing and aeration are stopped to allow solids to settle to the bottom of the tank leaving behind clarified water. The clarified water from this process is decanted to the cloth fiber filters and then flows into the Ultra-violet disinfection channels. The screened, treated, filtered and disinfected Effluent water is then discharged into Schooner Creek. Some of the Effluent is also be used as process water and wash-down water throughout the treatment plant in an effort to conserve drinking water

The excess solids from the Sequencing Batch Reactors are pumped into one of two aerobic digesters where the solids are further treated to reduce the organic content and harmful pathogens. Treated solids from the digesters are pumped to the centrifuge to be dewatered to approximately 20 to 21% solids and then hauled to the Coffin Butte Landfill.

The plant is operated by 5 full time state certified operators and monitored 7 days a week.

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Safeguarding the Public Water System

 The City of Lincoln City Water Department is responsible for safeguarding the public water system from pollution and contamination. Through operation of the state-mandated Backflow Prevention & Cross Connection Control Program, the City of Lincoln City Water Department helps protect your drinking water by:

• Assisting customers with compliance of backflow prevention practices and regulations.
• Identifying, eliminating, or protecting cross connections.

Backflow Tester List

Oregon Drinking Water Services (DWS) provides a public list of Oregon Health Authority-certified Backflow Assembly Testers. The City of Lincoln City Water Department provides customers a link to that list as a resource. To be registered on the voluntary list:

1. Be a Certified Backflow Assembly Tester in Oregon.
2. You, or your employer, must have a license from the Construction Contractor's Board (CCB) or Landscape Contractor's Board (LCB).
3. If you meet the two requirements, e-mail cross.connection@state.or.us with your name, tester certification #, LCB or CCB #, and which county you want to be listed in.

Requirement to Submit Backflow Test Reports Online

All approved state certified backflow assembly testers will be required to submit all backflow assembly test reports through the EcosConnect web application in order to be accepted and recorded.

Paper or e-mailed test reports are no longer accepted and will be returned to testers for submittal through the web application. 

To set up an account with EcosConnect, please email the following information to paul@ecosconnect.com.

1. Company name (as you want the world to see it)
2. The name of the person who will be the administrator of the company account and direct phone number
3. Email address to be used as the login name for the administrator account (this can be changed later if necessary)
4. Company mailing address
5. Company phone number
6. Certified tester information (name, certification number, gauge & calibration date)

Once EcosConnect has this information, they will create a company account and contact you to have you perform your initial login and change your password from the default password.

Questions

Chris Holmes

541-996-1287
541-364-1052
cholmes@lincolncity.org

Required Yearly Device Testing

The City of Lincoln City Water Department’s Backflow Prevention & Cross Connection Control Program requires all customers to test their backflow prevention assemblies:

• After initial installation.
• After any repair, replacement, or relocation.
• Each year by a certified backflow assembly tester.

Customers with backflow assemblies required to be tested will receive a yearly reminder letter from the Water Department.

Failure to conduct the required yearly backflow prevention assembly test will result in denial or discontinuation of water service.

Cross Connection

A cross-connection is any temporary or permanent connection between a public water system or consumer’s potable (i.e., drinking) water system and any source or system containing non-potable water or other substances.

Examples of common cross connection include:

• Hot tubs.
• Auxiliary water systems (wells).
• Hoses submerged in polluted or contaminated water.
• A secondary source of irrigation water (from a well or pond) pumped into an irrigation system directly connected to the drinking water supply system.
• A heating boiler with treatment chemical added to prevent internal corrosion being connected directly to the water supply for make-up water.
• An underground lawn sprinkler system directly connected to the water supply system.
• A fountain or swimming pool directly connected to the water system for filling.  

Cross connections can lead to contamination when a change in pressure within the water supply piping allows the water to flow backwards. This reversal of flow, called backflow, can allow contaminated water to flow back into the supply piping, threatening health and safety.

Although under normal circumstances the city water supply is pressurized to keep water flowing to your tap, unforeseen circumstances (such as the need to fight a fire, or when a water main breaks) can suddenly change the pressure in the supply piping, allowing the water to siphon back from your tap to the city supply.
Backflow prevention devices are installed to protect against cross connection contamination caused by backflow conditions.