The City of Hood River is receiving a low-interest loan of just over $2.7 million from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to extend the outfall pipe for the municipal wastewater treatment plant further out into the Columbia River.  City Manager Steve Wheeler says DEQ had advised the City the current outfall site for treated sewage was not appropriate.  The new outfall pipe will run along the Hook and then out into the river into a better “mixing zone.’  Wheeler says they have to time water work to take place during the allowable time period between November and March.  The interest rate on the DEQ loan is one-point-four percent.