Major water system improvements in Salem and the surrounding communities could be held up if Republicans in the state legislature don’t end their walkout by Sunday’s scheduled end of the session.

House Bill 5202, which passed out of committee Tuesday, would authorize $27 million in lottery bonds for Salem to make drinking water system improvements including constructing groundwater collector wells at Geren Island, where the city takes water from the North Santiam River to filter for its drinking water supply.

© Statesman Journal file Jim Schnurr, Black & Veatch's resident project representative for Franzen Reservior in Turner, rests at the end of the work day on the edge of the Franzen Reservior.

It also would allow construction of a permanent pump station at Franzen Reservoir in Turner, which is a water customer of Salem, and construction of 4,500 feet of waterline in Turner to replace a smaller and aging water line in the city.

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“Our needs are big in the utility,” said Salem Public Works Director Peter Fernandez.

The bill is one of more than 250 that are still "in play" at the Legislature, but on hold as Republican lawmakers continue their walkout in protest of a greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade bill.

Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers, with 18 in the Senate and 38 in the House. But both chambers need two Republicans to reach a constitutionally required two-thirds quorum.

Without a quorum, no business can be conducted on the floor of the House of Representatives, nor the Senate.

Among the bills still in limbo are fiscal bills, such as budget adjustments for state agencies and bonding authority.

Fernandez said Salem was seeking $10 million to construct two groundwater collector wells at Geren Island for a supplemental supply to the surface water from the North Santiam and $3 million for the Turner improvements.

Last year Salem received $20 million from the Legislature for water treatment improvements in 2019 as part of an ozone contact chamber to remove cyanotoxins, such as the ones that led to the drinking water crisis in Salem in 2018. That $50 million project is scheduled for groundbreaking in April, Fernandez said.

HB 5202 also would authorize $3 million in lottery bonds for the Lyons-Mehama Water District.

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That district put forth a $4.8 million bond measure to build a new 1.3 million-gallon water tank and install new distribution line to voters in the November 2019 election, but that measure failed.

Also included in the bill is $7.5 million for construction of a community center in Woodburn.

Preliminary plans for that center include a competition pool, an indoor gymnasium and a multi-purpose room.

Other items in the bill that would be funded through general obligation bonds include $5 million in capital improvements at the State Fairgrounds, $3 million for the horse barn and $2 million for the poultry barn.

© ANNA REED / STATESMAN JOURNAL The North Santiam River at the Geren Island Water Treatment Facility near Stayton on May 10, 2019. Salem officials are planning to spend more than $75 million to build defenses against toxic algae, in an effort to avoid a rerun of last year's drinking water crisis.

Western Oregon University would receive $21 million for a Student Success Center and $3 million for the Monmouth school’s Valsetz Dining Hall and Auxiliary Services renovation.

And there are $9.9 million in aviation facilities improvements for emergency enhancement at Salem Airport and $4.3 million for the Owen Summers and Anderson Readiness Center in Salem.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon Republican Walkout: Major water system improvements could be held up