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 on-call 24 hours/day 365 days a year. 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 Lincoln City completed Phase 1A upgrades of the 3.0 Million Gallon per Day wastewater treatment plant. This upgrade consists of new perforated influent screens for removal of plastics and other trash over ¼” in diameter. Also added was a new grit removal system that removes grit, sand and other inorganics from the waste stream. The trash and grit collected from these “pre-treatment” processes are contained and hauled to the landfill for disposal.

The screened raw sewage flows to one of four Sequencing Batch Reactor basins where microbes are used along with mixing and aeration to breakdown the waste in the sewage, then allowing the solids to settle out and leaving behind clarified water. The clarified water from this process goes into the upgraded portion of the existing wastewater plant where further separation of solids and water takes place. The finished water has chlorine gas added for bacteria and pathogen disinfection. Residual chlorine is removed by the addition of sulfur dioxide gas prior to the water discharging into Schooner Creek.

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. Two lagoons are used to store digested sludge (biosolids) for a year to provide further concentration and stabilization prior to land application for beneficial use on pasture lands as fertilizer.

In 2011 and 2012 the City plans to carry out the Phase 1B upgrades which will consist of installing a new effluent water filtering system and an Ultra-Violet light system that will provide bacteria and pathogen disinfection process. This will allow for removal of the existing chlorination and de-chlorination processes and other associated process structures. This Phase will also see the refurbishment of the aerobic digesters tanks with updated mixing, aeration and pumping. It will also include mechanical solids thickening to enhance sludge (biosolids) conditioning. The Effluent will also be used as process water and wash-down water throughout the treatment plant in an effort to conserve drinking water.