(Photo courtesy of City of Redmond)
ORWARN Facilitates Bringing Portland Crews & Specialized Equipment to Redmond
The City of Redmond is an active member of the Oregon Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network (ORWARN). ORWARN is composed of member Oregon utilities providing voluntary assistance to each other during emergency incidents and/or special projects. They facilitate rapid, short-term deployment of emergency services, in the form of personnel, equipment and materials, that are required to restore critical operations to utilities that have sustained damages from natural or man-made events.
The City of Redmond’s upcoming 51 foot sewer pipe lining project, requiring specialized equipment not currently owned by the City, provided an opportunity for ORWARN member cities to partner for a non-emergency exercise. Crews from the City of Bend and Madras will join the Portland crews to learn how best to engage in projects requiring access to specialized resources, coordinate logistics and service reimbursements with administration, as well as how to effectively communicate across sectors.
“As a member of ORWARN, Redmond understands the importance of providing voluntary assistance to other communities in the event of critical system failures,” states Chris Miccolis Redmond Wastewater Division Manager. “We all are mindful of potential large scale incidents, such as the Cascadia Event, that will require us to seek and/or provide assistance to one another. I was particularly excited to have the Portland Bureau of Transportation agree to take part in this exercise, providing first-hand experience on how these types of co-operative partnerships work once on the ground and how we can best manage the process for future projects.”
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) crews will be driving over three specialized vehicles used in sewer pipe lining applications. The PBOT crews will direct all lining work activities and Chris Miccolis will be responsible for the work site safety.
