Challenge

The City of Beaverton began using Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program (ASR) as a water management tool in 1998 to help meet peak (summer) demands and improve the overall resiliency, redundancy, and reliability of its water system. The City wanted to expand the program to become one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest, and to address the complex challenge of managing urban stormwater, as runoff can transport pollutants to local surface waters and contribute to flooding.

Solutions

Since 2000, the City has contracted with Summit staff to help with implementation, operation, and expansion of the ASR program in the local basalt aquifer system. Our team members undertook a multi-year study evaluating an innovative application of ASR technology, participating in every aspect of the process. We began by completing feasibility studies for ASR implementation and expansion and identifying locations for new ASR wells by performing numerical groundwater flow modeling. Our team also designed and managed the construction of the new ASR wells. Summit continued to assist with operational support of the ASR after completion of the expansion by managing long-term water level and water quality monitoring data, reviewing well performance and hydraulic responses, and providing continuing recommendations for operational improvements and strategic planning efforts. Our team also provided regulatory support during construction and operation, providing water rights permitting support and completing annual regulatory reporting and ASR limited license renewals, as required.

The City of Beaverton also hired Summit to assist with developing stormwater management at Sterling Park. While traditional stormwater management approaches have treated stormwater as a nuisance with minimal value, our staff are instead developing an innovative approach to stormwater management that will help to balance the growing water demands of the City of Beaverton. The project concept involves capturing, treating, and storing stormwater underground with the stormwater then being recovered during periods of high demand (summer) for various non-potable uses such as irrigation, supplementing instream flows, and providing a thermal cooling benefit to temperature impaired surface waters. Our team completed a feasibility study to assess the project’s viability, using funding obtained through a grant also developed by our team. The study involved collecting and reviewing stormwater quality and quantity data. Based on the feasibility report, our team also developed a management system that allows stormwater to be treated, stored, and recovered for various non-potable uses and streamflow enhancement.

Currently, Summit serves as a subcontractor to Consor to assist with ASR project construction that combines stormwater recharge. Our team developed the project concept to evaluate the potential use of treated residential municipal stormwater for ASR and wrote the ultimately successful grant to obtain funding through Senate Bill (SB) 1069.

Results

Summit’s work on the ASR project achieved the City’s goal of becoming the largest in the Pacific Northwest, with a storage account of over one billion gallons and a recovery capacity of over 10 million gallons per day (30 percent of daily water consumption during the summer). Our work on the use of treated residential municipal stormwater for ASR has also inspired other departments. In particular, Clean Water Services (CWS) is interested in this promising approach to managing urban stormwater runoff as a way to balance growing water demand in the City of Beaverton. This project would enable stored runoff to be saved for nonpotable uses, such as irrigation, or for supplementing instream flows in the summer with cooler stored stormwater.

This [O&M Manual for the City’s potable ASR system] will definitely set the bar for the O&M manual that we need to get done for the rest of our water system!

Dan Graff