Saving and producing energy in Pendleton’s wastewater treatment process has been successful for a long time.
But Kyle Willman, lead plant operator and technician for the city in eastern Oregon, has plans to go farther. “We should be getting close to a true zero, not just a net-zero, but a true zero for utility energy consumption,” he says. A part of that plan is a solar array on a roof to be built over the Wastewater Treatment Resource Recovery Facility’s chlorine contact chamber.Since 2008 the city has bought power for the plant (5.5 mgd design, 2.5 mgd average) from a solar
