By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

Baker City recently paid a fine of $1,828 to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for missing a deadline for testing treated sewage before piping the wastewater into the Powder River in late April 2007.

The city paid the fine on May 7, 2008, according to DEQ records.

Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director, said the city did test the wastewater, four days after it started diverting the water into the river, and the tests showed the water was properly treated.

andquot;There was no harm done to the environment,andquot; Owen said. andquot;It was a timing issue.andquot;

Steve McMillan, a natural resource specialist at DEQ’s Pendleton office, agreed with Owen’s descriptions.

What happened, Owen said, is that the city started diverting wastewater into the river on April 27, 2007, which was a Friday.

Because the Idaho testing lab the city employs does not test samples on weekends, the city waited until the following Tuesday to submit samples, Owen said.

The city’s DEQ permit requires that the city test wastewater samples andquot;within one weekandquot; of releasing water into the river, she said.

However, that permit defines the week as the period Sunday through Saturday, Owen said, which means the city should have tested the wastewater on either that Friday, April 27, or the next day.

To avoid violations, the city no longer starts piping wastewater into the river on Fridays, Owen said.

Owen contends that the matter is a andquot;minor violationandquot; because the tests proved that the city did not put improperly treated water into the river.

However, Owen said city officials decided not to contest the violation because taking DEQ to court would have cost the city more money than the $1,828 fine.

The city tests wastewater to make sure it is not contaminated with chlorine or any other toxins that could pollute the Powder River.

The city adds chlorine to sewage to kill bacteria, then uses sulfur dioxide to remove the chlorine before the wastewater runs into the river.

The fine the city paid last month is the second such penalty it has paid in the past year related to testing timeline violations at the sewage treatment plan, which is about a mile north of town.

Last year the city paid $1,239 for missing a deadline, in May 2004, for turning in test results from water samples workers collected at the treatment plant.

The city did submit those test results, on May 3, 2007. As was the case with the samples from April 2007, those samples showed the water had been properly disinfected.

The city paid the $1,239 fine as part of a settlement with DEQ, which originally levied a fine of $3,639 for the missing deadlines.

Besides the two wastewater testing violations, the city has paid one other fine to DEQ since 1998.

In October 2001 the city paid $1,714 for violating state air quality rules. The issue in that case was the city’s handling of asbestos while workers were renovating City Hall.