Portland officials have announced that they will no longer seek assistance from state lawmakers in their bid to push forward a controversial $2 billion water filtration project. This decision comes in the wake of stalled opposition that has been hindering progress on the project, which is critical for the city’s water supply.
Senate Bill 936, which would have allowed the Bull Run water treatment facility located east of Gresham to bypass Oregon’s typical land-use appeals process, has been effectively abandoned. This shift follows ongoing legal challenges that threaten to delay the project further and increase its already skyrocketing costs. City officials had initially categorized the bill as one of their primary legislative priorities in Salem this year but have since changed their position.
Cody Bowman, a spokesperson for the city, stated in a recent announcement that Portland has concluded that the bill, sponsored by Senator Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham, would not provide the relief they initially sought, prompting them to cease work on it. As of now, Senator Gorsek did not provide any comments regarding this development.
Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries—an industry group that had been actively opposing the bill—confirmed that the legislation is effectively dead, stating, ‘It has six feet of dirt on it.’ This reflects a growing sentiment among opponents who claim that the project poses threats to local resources and the environment.
In an earlier ruling from January, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals sided with project opponents by overturning a portion of a conditional land-use permit necessary for the construction of the filtration plant. The board ruled that Multnomah County officials had not sufficiently determined whether the construction would negatively impact the rural area’s natural resources. As a result, city officials decided to pause construction until the county completes its review process, which is not expected to yield a ruling until the end of June.
Brandon Zero, spokesperson for the Water Bureau, expressed concerns about the implications of continued delays. He mentioned that every holdup in this vital project, aimed at providing clean drinking water, raises costs for all Portlanders. The project is not only legal in nature; it has also become a pressing economic issue, affecting future system improvements and compliance with federal regulations.
The city aims to have the new water treatment facility operational by 2027 to comply with federal requirements for filtering out the parasite cryptosporidium and other contaminants. Failure to meet this deadline could result in daily fines from the federal government or lead Portland to issue boil water notices until the filtration plant becomes operational, thereby impacting public health.
The site chosen for the Bull Run water filtration plant encompasses a significant area of forest land that the city purchased in 1975. However, the land is not zoned for the current project, which necessitates obtaining a conditional land-use permit before moving forward. Over the years, fierce opposition from rural residents, farmers, and businesses near the construction site has actively challenged the project, further complicating its progress.
Due to persistent opposition and a variety of other factors, the filtration plant has encountered numerous delays and its cost has ballooned to $2.1 billion. This represents a staggering fourfold increase from the $500 million plan that city elected leaders had initially approved in 2017. Although Portland officials began construction on the project last year, they have just over two years left to complete it before the September 2027 federal deadline.
Portland reasonably prides itself on the purity of its Bull Run water, sourced from a large, virgin watershed near Mount Hood. Currently, the city only treats this water to add disinfectants like chlorine and ammonia, as well as substances like sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to mitigate corrosiveness. In 2017, however, both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Oregon Health Authority mandated that the city improve its treatment processes due to frequent detections of cryptosporidium in the city’s water samples.
Drinking water contaminated with certain strains of cryptosporidium may lead to symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration. Critics have raised concerns that federal cryptosporidium regulations are outdated and incorrect, asserting that animal-borne strains found in the Bull Run watershed do not pose a risk to human health.
In light of these developments, the city of Portland Water Bureau reaffirmed its commitment to meeting compliance deadlines and ensuring the provision of safe, reliable, and resilient drinking water to its constituents.
image source from：https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/04/portland-drops-state-land-use-exemption-bid-as-bull-run-water-treatment-project-remains-stalled.html
