Letter: Lack of transparency

Again the City of St Helens shows a lack of concern for transparency.

On June 6th 2023 and June 7th, I suggested the City should give an updated report on the failed 2 MG reservoir. I got replies of no intention and it's not necessary. The Spotlights, Scott Keith was given the Pittsburg Road 2 MG reservoir statement on June 28th. The newspaper's request seems to have received an overdue update. This is lack of transparency, and this information should have been shared voluntarily with The Chronicle.

The City has possessed a lot of information that the City failed to utilize when trying to determine the cause of the leaking reservoir, especially when the Rehabilitation repair work caused increased leaking. The reservoir condition was plagued from the beginning with not knowing what was the source of the high volume leak.

The City failed to identify the leaking from 2009--2016, then hired Kennedy/Jenks as Engineer. I haven't determined what investigation Kennedy/Jenks performed, but provided the Plan for Rehabilitation.

BIC noted water infiltration, and there was a lack of oversite inspection performed during the Geotextile mat and Carboline reactamine application. The project was to be inspected by the City of St. Helens. The City claims it was workmanship that caused the failure. BIC assessment was that the Geotextile- epoxy liner couldn't account for leaking 44,000 gallons per day. So Walker Consultants was hired to investigate the failure.

This action results in the Walker Report being withheld by the City claiming Client Privilege.

Ron Trommlitz

St. Helens

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