By Nancy Tannler
On April 16, 2025 the County held the Portland Water Bureau’s Remand Hearing. LUBA (Land Use Board of Appeals) rendered a remand hearing that requires the Portland Water Bureau (PWB) to stop building the water filtration plant to determine the impact of the 90-acre plant on the natural resources to the area located south of Oxbow Regional Park. LUBA document No. 2023-086 stated, “The hearings officer misconstrued the community use natural resources criterion and, based on that misconstruction, failed to adopt adequate findings supported by substantial evidence.”
Approximately 122 people attended the hearing in person and 198 people attended virtually. Testimony was taken from people both for and against the appeal. The hearing was limited in scope to resolving the issue(s) remanded by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals in Cottrell Community Planning Organization et al v. Multnomah. Online testimony will remain open until May 8, 2025 and must be in response to materials filed. (When submitting materials into the record, please include the case #T3-2022-16220 in the transmittal and submit via email at LUP-hearings@multco.us.)
In 2003 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2) proclaiming that all open air, drinking water reservoirs needed to be disconnected and/or covered because of the possibility of the Cryptosporidium parasite—the leading cause of waterborne disease.
One of the earliest solutions to comply with the LT2 ruling was to build a UV plant. In 2012 the PWB spent $16 million for the design of a state-of-the-art UV plant to be located at Headworks, the first treatment facility our water passes through on its way to the reservoirs. Seattle’s Cedar Water Treatment Facility and several others throughout the nation use this method to comply with the ruling.
According to Brandon Zero, Public Information Officer PWB, the UV plan was discarded in 2017 in favor of building a filtration plant. It was Commissioner Nick Fish who championed the cause. His main argument was that due to climate change and living in a subduction zone, we would eventually need to add filtration to any existing UV plant.
At the same time, citizen groups and scientist Scott Fernandez, M.Sc. Biology, argued that this extra precaution was not warranted and would add an unnecessary expense to our water bill.
The PWB has detected only low levels of Cryptosporidium since they first began monitoring in 2017 but there hasn’t been a need for customers to take extra precautions like boiling water.
In 2017 the bi-lateral compliance agreement between the PWB and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) stated, “PWB currently provides water from the Bull Run watershed that meets the exemption to filtration criteria,” as stated in Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 333-061-0032 (2) and (3). Despite these protests, and exemptions, City Council still decided the filtration plant was the best option.
Within these documents between PWB and the OHA it is stated that they can be amended if both parties agree. This is why citizens continue to resist the filtration plant. One of their main objections is the cost. In 2020, this project was sold to City Council, estimating it to be between $350 and $500 million. The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA)—the long-term, low-cost supplemental loan from the EPA to help defer costs—is now at $2.14 billion. Zero said that this low interest loan is still a good deal but did agree that building in these inflationary times have made the costs go up significantly.
One of the other arguments is the array of chemicals that will be used in the filtration process. They are Sodium Bisulfate, Liquid Ammonia Sulfate, Cationic Polymer, Soda Ash and Sodium Hypochlorite. A UV plant only uses Chlorine and Ammonia. To date, there have been no known deaths from Cryptosporidium in Multnomah and Clackamas Counties.
Bonita Oswald, Project Communications Coordinator PWB, said that the combination of chemicals to be used in the filtration plant is what is recommended nationally. These are not forever chemicals and can be enhanced further in the future if a new bacteria is discovered.
Zero says the filtration plant is the culmination of a lot of work by the PWB. “We have had dozens of meetings with the local residents, businesses, schools—reaching over 1,700 respondents to address their concerns.” He believes the PWB has done their best for the community.
Hearings Officer Liz Fancher will render a decision on the remand appeal by June 25. Should the decision be in favor of the plaintiffs—Cottrell Community Planning Organization—Zero said, “We remain focused on the land use process for now. We will continue to follow established procedures and work toward our September 2027 compliance deadline to begin serving filtered water to our customers.”
For those who still object to moving ahead with the filtration project, contact your District 3 Councilors: Angelita Morillo (councilor.morillo@portlandoregon.gov), Steve Novick (councilor.Novick@portlandoregon.gov) and Tiffany Koyama Lane (councilor.koyamalane@portlandoregon.gov).
More at bullrunwaterguardians.com and portland.gov/water/bullruntreatment/filtration/about.