TD Council approves purchase to increase water treatment as Google builds out
File Photo - The City’s Wix Water Treatment Plant on Mill Creek Road captures and cleans water from the Dog River Watershed.
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., Jul 9, 2024— The Dalles City Council approved a $120,000 purchase of water treatment chemicals in a move to be prepared for storing additional water in the next year as new data centers are being developed.
The decision came at the council’s regular meeting on Monday, July 8.
Data centers can take millions of gallons of water per day to cool.
Public Works Director David Anderson requested the purchase of 241,448 wet pounds of aluminum chlorohydrate. The chemical is a coagulant and binds with dirt and debris suspended in untreated water. It can then be caught in the filtering system and removed.
It is important to remove the suspended materials as they “can harbor potentially disease-causing bacteria and viruses,” Anderson said.
Councilor Timothy McGlothlin
The city has been using the chemical since 2008 or 2009 to clean water for the city, Anderson told council.
Councilor Timothy McGlothlin asked how much of the chemical remains in drinking water after treatment. Anderson said the chemical is caught in the filters and is entirely removed.
With Anderson’s recommendation, the Council authorized him to award the lowest bid to Brenntag Pacific, Inc. which was the lowest of four bidders at 49.7 cents per wet pound.
Brenntag is a global chemical company headquartered in Essen, Germany.
Need for more Water
The need for additional potable water stems from the $28.5 million agreement the City made with Google for a massive potable water and sewer upgrade in The Dalles in November 2021.
Google agreed to pay $28.5 million for the upgrades but also gave the city its water rights of 3.88 million gallons per day. In past meetings, Anderson said the water rights are more than enough to meet Google needs with capacity left over for the city.
Google purchased the water rights from the former aluminum smelter owners.
In the agreement, The City committed to the list of following projects:
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Two new wells placed on the former aluminum plant property with a capacity of producing 5.2 million gallons of water per day will be constructed on Google property.
In addition, one of those wells will be used for storing water from The Dalles Municipal Watershed. Water treated at the City’s water treatment plant will be pumped back into the ground through one of the new wells proposed for Google. During fall and winter, millions of gallons of surface water could then be stored for later use in warmer months. It’s called an Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program or ASR.
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