Albany may have to take additional steps to reduce pollution in the Willamette River under a new system of proposed regulation.

Among the likely steps to be required are moves to control storm runoff in winter and lower the temperature of the river in the summer.

The state Department of Environmental Quality announced last week it had completed a thorough analysis of water quality in the Willamette Basin. The study determined "total maximum daily loads" or TMDLs of contaminants the river and its tributaries can take without violating standards for water quality.

The study took several years to complete and was accompanied by a management plan laying out who has to do what.

For example, Albany and other cities are to complete a plan for managing storm water so it does not carry bacteria into streams.

Years ago Albany separated its storm sewers from the sanitary sewer system in a previous mandate to reduce river pollution.

In retrospect that "probably was a mistake," said Mark Yeager, a city utilities engineer and former public works director who served on an advisory committee to the state TMDL program.

Another goal of the TMDL program is to reduce the summertime temperatures in the Willamette and its tributaries so that fish do better.

Yeager said Albany doesn't know yet what that will mean in practical terms. It may require pumping some of the city's wastewater to irrigate fields instead of returning it to the river.

But in Yeager's opinion, short of hanging a canopy above the Willamette River, nothing is likely to have a big effect on the water temperature when the river flow is low and the sun beats down on the wide stream in the summer.

The TMDL study also was concerned with mercury. It found that in order for the state to remove warnings against eating too much fish, mercury pollution in the river would have to be reduced 27 percent. The river mercury comes from many sources including the valley's soil and air, from the burning of fuel, and even from outside the country, the DEQ said.

The current study calls for another one on mercury alone, to be finished by 2009.

Regulation to control river pollution relies on permits that specify upper limits on how much pollution any source - usually a city or industrial wastewater treatment plant - may discharge.

Under the TMDL program, the DEQ said that within five years permit holders from the mouth of the Santiam River south will get new permits cutting back on permitted levels of pollution.

That covers the Albany treatment plant and Millersburg industries such as Wah Chang and the Albany Paper Mill.

The new permits will allow "for operations plus growth but not to permitted levels," the DEQ said in a summary of the plan.

Cities will be allowed 35 percent growth and industries 15 percent.

Sources north of the Santiam's mouth will get new permits at the current discharge limits.

The study also covers pollution from forest and farm lands. Forestry and agriculture agencies are to prepare new management plans, also within 18 months.

Informational open houses on the TMDL program are scheduled in Salem, Oregon City, Eugene and Albany, to be followed by formal public hearings in each place.

The Albany open house will be from 3-5 and again from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, in the Cascades West Center, 1400 Queen Ave. S.E. (second floor conference room).

The hearing will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 12 in the same place.

Public comment on the program will close Jan. 14, 2005. The DEQ then plans to finalize the TMDL, issue it as an order and seek its approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.