The Improved Corrosion Control Treatment facility is on schedule to begin reducing lead at the tap next month, thanks in part to the skills and quality work of local, minority-owned firms like McDonald Excavating. This Native-owned business did site excavation work and installed several thousand feet of underground pipework for the project.
“A door gets opened by being a minority contractor,” says Mike Logan, project manager for McDonald Excavating. “It stays open by doing quality work. That’s what we try to do―good, quality work.”
McDonald Excavating is a subcontractor to MWH Constructors, the Portland Water Bureau’s construction manager and general contractor for the project. The Water Bureau and MWH Constructors committed to using firms certified by the state’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) on the project and increasing labor hours for minorities and women in the construction trades.
Working on such a big and important project has been exciting for the people at McDonald Excavating. They worked on the project at Lusted Hill on a day-to-day basis for 16 months and then incrementally throughout construction. The work they performed has been highly technical and challenging pipework, which required complex problem-solving to address the unique characteristics of the site.
Once the Improved Corrosion Control Treatment facility is fully online, the upgraded treatment will further protect public health by helping reduce lead exposure at customers’ taps as required by the Environmental Protection Agency. It will be online in April in compliance with the Oregon Health Authority’s schedule.
Mike appreciates the magnitude of the project for the future.
“I am so grateful to have the opportunity to help develop a way to keep processing and bringing water to people,” said Mike.
Learn more about the Improved Corrosion Control Treatment Project.