
Electric Outage: 1-844-484-2300
Water Emergency: 541-685-7595
EWEB Main: 541-685-7000
An EWEB-supported program provides firewood for people affected by the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. The McKenzie Firewood program was developed by Pure Water Partners (PWP) in 2021.
Find Out MoreAt EWEB, we do what we can to help others in need. That’s been the reality for several of our electric and water crews over the past few weeks as we’ve responded to mutual aid requests for storm response and drinking water restoration, locally, and out of state.
Find Out MoreEWEB has 800 miles of transmission and distribution lines transporting your drinking water underground throughout the city. It eventually comes out of your tap as delicious thirst-quenching water. But what goes into maintaining all those pipes? And what happens when one gets a leak? We went to find out.
Find Out MoreIn response to a call for aid this week, EWEB’s water division jumped into action to assist the town of Mapleton after a leak in their water system left about 260 homes without running water.
Find Out MoreAt Alton Baker Park this week, Eugene 4J elementary students bid farewell to baby salmon they’d raised from eggs in their classrooms this fall. The activity was part of the Salmon Education Program funded by EWEB grants.
Find Out MoreEWEB works with watershed researchers, forest management agencies and local non-profits to identify threats to our water supply and public health, prioritize watershed restoration activities and help with long-term community recovery.
Find Out MoreEWEB conducted a multi-agency spill drill on the Willamette River this week. The practice session was to help refresh and hone skills that will be essential to respond to an actual disaster involving an oil spill in the Willamette.
Find Out MoreEWEB’s Source Water Champions work year-round to protect our drinking water. They take water quality samples throughout the watershed, help our neighbors be better stewards, and coordinate multi-agency teams for restoration work and hazard mitigation.
Find Out MoreLocal middle school students from around the area learned about the entire life cycle of salmon along the McKenzie River at Salmon Watch 2022, which was held at the EWEB spawning channel. The field trip took place during peak salmon spawning season, when fish that are at least two feet long are reaching the end of their journey from the ocean to their natal streams.
Find Out MoreLaura Farthing has been working for EWEB for the past 14 years. She’s the lead engineer on EWEB’s water storage construction project near E. 40th and Patterson St.
Find Out MoreEWEB held a grand opening event for our Emergency Water Station near the Sheldon Fire Station on Saturday, September 10. The site would supply drinking water for the neighborhood in the event of a catastrophic earthquake or other disaster that cut off water to customers.
Find Out MoreEWEB's new map displays water quality sampling results and can advise McKenzie River recreationalists where to avoid areas with toxic algae
Find Out MoreHow has EWEB prepared to deliver power and water to all these athletes and spectators from around the world?
Find Out MoreIn 2022, residential rates increased for the first time in five years. Looking ahead, a variety of long-term critical projects coupled with short-term supply chain and inflationary pressures and a dynamic power supply market are likely to impact the prices customers pay for water and power.
Find Out MoreEWEB will continue the annual closure of our College Hill Reservoir over the Fourth of July holiday and prohibit fireworks on the property grounds.
Find Out MoreAugust 25, 2022
EWEB’s Hayden Bridge Filtration plant recently received 42 three-ton sacks of coal.
No, EWEB isn’t on Santa’s naughty list. And, no, EWEB is not switching to coal-fired power – our electricity is approximately 90 percent carbon free and comes largely from hydropower.
This very pure form of coal called anthracite coal is actually used as part of the water filtration process. In this process, coal actually makes the water cleaner by acting like a sponge that traps particles.
The water that EWEB sources from the McKenzie River is already very clean. But we still need to treat it at the Hayden Bridge Filtration plant to remove impurities and ensure your drinking water is safe.
Lonny Sayles, EWEB’s water filtration plant lead operator, is part of the team that keeps the water pure.
“They take a 3,000-pound sack of coal,” Sayles said. “They bring it over on the forklift, put it up over the hopper. They pull a ripcord and the media starts dropping out of a chute into (a narrow, high-pressure tube that creates suction so water and coal move through the hose) and then they pump the media up into the filter.”
Because summer is the peak season for water use, plant operators want to avoid taking too many filters out of commission during this process. So, they’re taking a few days to add the coal to each filter.
The anthracite coal functions as a sponge, absorbing tiny particles, Sayles said.
“The particles are way too small to be filtered out,” Sayles said. “They're too small to settle out in the sedimentation basins. So, what we do as operators, we turn little particles into big particles. That way, our filters can handle the load and filter it out.”
The coal brings those particles with it as it settles at the bottom of the filter under a layer of sand. Then the filtered water is pumped out to Hayden Bridge’s 15-million-gallon covered reservoir to be disinfected.
Plant operators learn how to do everything at the plant so they can troubleshoot and know what to do if anything breaks. The overlapping skillsets ensure that problems are fixed quickly. At the same time, some staffers have been at the plant long enough to see it evolve into a digitally driven operation.
“That's a big key and it always has been,” Sayles said. “This generation of operators, we we've seen this place go from pulling levers to poking buttons. ”
Everyone who works at the plant takes pride in what they do.
“And they think of every drop of water that leaves,” Sayles said. “Here it's going to baby's formula. It's going into these hospitals. That's what our operators’ mindsets are. And each and every one of them that are here at Hayden Bridge, they have that same thought process, and they go the extra mile.”
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Mailing Address: 4200 Roosevelt Blvd., Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: 541-685-7000
Toll free: 800-841-5871
Email: eweb.answers@eweb.org
Customer service phone hours: 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. Monday - Friday