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Ashland City Council approved the purchase of a $450,000 centrifuge machine Tuesday for the city’s wastewater treatment plant to prevent a possible waste-hitting-the-fan situation.

Public Works Director Scott Fleury asked the council to buy the Aditz Separation Technology Centrifuge, stating that two centrifuges currently in use at the wastewater plant have been on the fritz for years.

These machines were added to the wastewater plant during an upgrade in the 1990s, Fleury said. He described their function as “dewatering the sludge.”

Once wastewater is divided from the sludge — as much as it can be — each go their separate ways. The water is treated, and the solid sludge is hauled to Dry Creek Landfill.

Fleury told the council both centrifuges had been out of commission at alternating times over the past four years. When the units fail, they often must be shipped to Texas for repairs. It takes weeks before they’re returned, during which time the wastewater plant is driving with one headlight out, as far as Fleury is concerned, stating that resiliency means redundancy.

“Two is one, one is none,” Fleury said.

Councilors Gina DuQuenne and Shaun Moran asked about a facility assessment done at the wastewater treatment plant in 2018, which declared both centrifuges to be working fine. Fleury said that both units recently had been repaired at that time and have continued to need repairs since.

About 2018, Fleury estimated, the wastewater plant had a scare that made them consider the need for a new unit.

“We had one down, and it was out for repair,” Fleury said. “We were operating on one unit, and the other unit started to give us problems.”

Public Works began to look at what Fleury called emergency processes. All that is flushed must go somewhere.

“(It) would require us to call basically every septic hauler in the valley and see if they could haul our liquid sludge, in an enclosed container, to Medford to their drying lagoons,” Fleury said.

Fleury said they could bring in an emergency trailer-mounted centrifuge if theirs failed, but there is only room at the plant for one week’s worth of sludge. One week would barely be enough time to bring in the trailer-mounted unit or start hauling the material.

The nature of the material demands enclosed tankers for hauling from Ashland to Medford, but the tankers can only fit 1,000 to 2,000 gallons at once.

“We are generally talking about thousands of gallons a day,” Fleury said.

Fleury said that by buying one new centrifuge, the city would have the resiliency and the redundancy to avoid the difficulties projected by a failure of both older units. In the future, Public Works would like to buy a second new unit and retire one older unit, using the remaining repaired unit as the backup.

Moran asked whether the purchase would raise rates for utility customers. Fleury and City Manager Joe Lessard said the money was available without raising rates or jeopardizing efforts to balance the city budget.

“I’m ready to kick this centrifuge down the road,” Councilor Stephen Jensen said. “This council is charged with maintaining essential services. Having a flushed toilet going in the right direction is an essential service.”

Councilor Paula Hyatt added, “We value our infrastructure when it’s working by not even thinking about it.”

Fleury said the unit is expected to arrive in five to six months.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.