What's the cost of a slightly cleaner Willamette River? For people in Albany, it's roughly $1,200 per person over several years. That's a rough calculation, subject to change over time. Here's what led to it.

The city of Albany, under orders from the state, is about to launch a $60 million expansion of the city's sewage treatment plant on the Willamette River.

To cover the cost, the city has obtained the authority to borrow up to $60 million from a state fund set aside for such purposes. Starting in 2009, the money will have to be repaid at about 4 percent in interest and fees.

The city plans to repay the money from monthly sewer fees and from systems development charges on new development. The city has been raising sewer rates 9 percent each July since July 2000 and will continue to do so each year through 2010.

Tonight, the council is scheduled to commit itself to spending the first big chunk of this money. It will act on a $10.1 million contract with CH2M Hill to provide design and other services for the treatment plant update.

The main point of this huge update is to prevent the discharge of untreated wastewater to the Willamette River during periods of heavy rain, usually during the winter, when the plant sometimes cannot handle all the water coming down the pipes.

From the standpoint of pollution, this has been a problem but not a big one. During periods of heavy rain, the river usually runs high and muddy, and any overflow from overloaded city systems is quickly lost in the general murk. And there's no recreational use of the river during those times.

The upshot is that Albany is spending $60 million to make the river slightly less polluted during the winter. Other cities are doing the same. Keep this in mind as the Legislature and the Department of Environmental Quality consider additional steps, from the limits on total maximum daily loads to the proposal to eliminate mixing zones for effluent in the river, all of which would require further expenditures of so far unknown but probably vast quantities of cash.

Let the policy makers remember that people in Albany and other river towns are already paying a lot. (hh)