Water Bureau director David Shaff can breathe a sigh of relief: City council voted this afternoon to approve a plan that might just keep him out of jail.
SHAFF: Pleading mercy with city council…
This story first heated up back in February, when City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who controls the water bureau, was attacked by some of Portland’s open reservoir activists [you should click on the link just to see the illustration of Leonard in a water fight—but also, if you’re interested in more background and context on this post].
Leonard, like the open reservoir activists, agrees that the city’s water supply is amongst the cleanest in the nation. Unfortunately, new federal rules by the Environmental Protection Agency say Portland has to come up with a plan to cover its reservoirs, filter and treat all its water by April 1, or face hefty fines, and potentially, jail time for its water bureau director.
“I don’t want to go to jail,” Shaff told the Mercury, bluntly, before the hearing. So this afternoon, council unanimously approved a three-point plan proposed by Shaff: Firstly, the city will attempt to pursue a “variance” with the EPA, which would hopefully mean that if the city could prove that Portland’s water source, the infamous Bull Run, is pure enough, then it would be able to bypass the new rules for covering, filtering and treating its water. Secondly, the city plans to pursue an exemption from the EPA rules by lobbying President Obama and congress for an exemption for Portland. Lastly, the city needs to plan to comply with the EPA’s rules, which means planning to build $800million of changes into the water system, including covering the city’s reservoirs, and building a new filtration plant. The cost of so-doing would be covered by a likely 18% increase in water rates across the board.
More on this issue after the jump, although I should warn you:
Aside from the cost issue, Portland’s open reservoir activists are thrilled with the first two “Portland’s special” parts of the plan, but don’t want Portland to start planning to comply with the rules. Because that would mean, you know, closing the reservoirs. And throwing chemicals into the water, they say…
“An $800 million dollar treatment plant will take some of the world’s purest water from Bull Run, and lace it with chemicals,” said Stephanie Steward, chair of the Mount Tabor land use board, at this afternoon’s hearing.
“We have a system now that with proper maintenance will serve us nobly,” said filmmaker Brad Yazzolino. “We should probably say proudly that yes, we drink the rain, and it works fine for us.“
One activist today even suggested that Portland should deliberately refuse to comply with the EPA’s rules in an act of civil disobedience. “The fines aren’t that large,” she said—only $68million a year, compared to the cost of making all the controversial changes.
Council members all said that while they don’t think Portland should have to comply with the rules, they took an oath of office to obey the law when they were sworn in. “We don’t get to make the decision to disregard the law,” said Commissioner Nick Fish. “This is a classic caught between a rock and a hard place situation.“
Fish even told Shaff that he thought “some jail time might do [him] good,” but voted for the plan on the condition that council will be able to weigh in in future on the details of the filtration systems, reservoir covering, and so on. Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she hoped the public would be involved in the decision-making process, too, and said she was disappointed that council hadn’t had the opportunity to discuss the plan earlier.
“This is a painful discussion for all of us,” said Mayor Sam Adams. “In that it appropriately memorializes the fact that were moving into a new phase on this issue. It may be painful, but it is honest.”
Adams said he also thinks that the plan is unnecessary, and that he hopes the EPA exemption can be reached. 
FLOY JONES (center): Outspoken open reservoir activist…
“It was expected, but disconcerting,” said open reservoir activist Floy Jones, after the vote. “Because there hasn’t been a public process addressing the specifics of the third part of the plan. I think it’s been lacking, because the water bureau wants to make all the decisions.”
Leonard is likely to blow an internal gasket when he reads that quote, having told council this afternoon that this process has involved the most intensive public involvement of any initiative since he joined council in 2002. Indeed, Leonard appears to be rapidly losing patience with Jones and her fellow open-reservoir activists.
An open house to discuss the exemption process with congressional delegates, along with Leonard, will take place from 10am-noon on Saturday, April 11, at a location to be decided. And because of the potential for fireworks, even though it’s on a Saturday morning, we’ll be there.
Pick you spot to interview RL more carefully this time.
Aside from opposition to cost, what exactly is the “pen reservoir activists’ position on this? Is there some other reasoning behind their opposition to covered reservoirs? I’m not getting it.
SPK, for clarification: I’m not sure I am, either. They talked yesterday about “containing dangerous gases” and about polluting the water with chemicals, and one, I think, even mentioned the “dangerousness” of water filtration. But I can’t help but wonder whether there isn’t just a curious blend of anti-federalism, environmentalism, and aestheticism underlying some of the more extreme viewpoints. It’s a uniquely Oregonian kind of opposition, I guess. And the fact that most of these advocates are saying Portland shouldn’t have to comply with federal law is strange—the “Portland’s special” viewpoint—although many seemed to think that the EPA laws are arbitrary and were created with the interests of the filtration companies in mind.
It seems to me that a small group of committed activists have whipped up neighborhood fervor and sentiment. And there does seem to be a willing blindness to the EPA requirements, and open hostility toward the water bureau.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbors did feel that their concerns had been ignored by Leonard. He can be brusque, and sometimes, a bully, when he doesn’t get what he wants. Although he does insist that he’s done his best to listen in this case.
At the moment, my judgment on this, which as you know, is notoriously bad: It’s about 8 of one, 4 of the other.
Back when Saltzman had the water bureau they spent a bunch of money on tarps to cover the reservoirs, but never covered them. Then when it came out they were about to sell the tarps on E Bay for a fraction of what they originally cost (to water bureau personnel as I recall) they reneged on the sale. As far as I know the tarps are still in storage somewhere.
Clearly these citizens are concerned about our precious bodily fluids, which must remain free from contamination such as flouridation.
Funny how many people are desperately against spending money on PGE Park, but are quite happy to go along with spending ten times as much for even less return (the only practical thing that would change if the reservoirs e.g. on Mt Tabor were covered is that it’d be harder to go skinny dipping in them).
For the immediate neighbours, it’s a question of aesthetics of uncovered reservoirs vs the mosquitoes they bring with them in the summer. So, kind of a wash really. But when the cost is so high and so pointless, no other reasons for opposition are needed.
How does this reservoir get to remain uncovered, I wonder.
http://www.silverlake.org/about_silverlake…
For clarification: Using the word “bully” to describe Leonard, when he doesn’t get what he wants, is too strong. I’m trying to think of a better word. Intimidating? He can be intimidating, when you ask him tough questions or call him out on issues. At least: That’s been my experience on a few occasions. But for the most part, we have enjoyed an excellent working relationship of late. And I haven’t felt intimidated, very often.
There have been a few cases of water treatment plants killing people. The odds are very low, and it is generally a combination of operator error and bad design, but it does happen. If you are worried about nuclear power plants near your house, (which I think are quite safe, compared to coal ones, even ignoring global warming,) then you should be worried about water treatment plants. The problem is that there are large quantities of strong chemicals there, (coagulants and floculents,) which in small quantities take out suspended solids, (when it rains hard at bull run, the water is muddy,) but every so often someone leaves a valve open or makes a mistake, and injects the entire month’s worth of chemicals down the pipe in 2 minutes, and bad things happen to people that happen to be drinking the water at that time. (They die.) It is very rare event, but it has happened before, and it will happen again. Of course, in Portland, we have two very good water sources, so when the water from bull run is too muddy to use, we fire up our well field, (which will soon be contaminated by the piles from the Columbia River Crossing bridge,) and drink that water instead for a few days. Vancouver BC has a very similar setup to Portland, except they don’t have the well field, so for a few days a year, they have a boil water advisory, and all the tap water is brown. (Not cool.)
Stu: I highly doubt that there are any mosquitoes in that reservoir, there is chlorine in it, and the water gets turned over fairly quickly.
blairmastbaum: That reservoir probably feeds a treatment plant. If there was something wrong with the water, the treatment plant notices and either disconnects or treats and take care of it. Of course, treatment plants don’t test for everything all the time (anthrax, or coffee, or birth control, for instance,) so they wouldn’t notice everything, which is why the rule is kind of bogus anyways. However, Mt Tabor is “clean” water, there is nothing between it and customers. If a bird pooped in it, (and they do,) the little bit of chlorine in the water will neutralize the bird poop, but if someone dumps a 55 gallon drum of gasoline in the water, you better hope that the water department catches them and turns off the valve. That is why the fed wants the reservoirs covered, and why we think that better security is actually a perfect (and much cheaper) solution.
LT2 effects Portland’s water in two, distinct ways: 1) it requires us to build a treatment plant for all water leaving Bull Run headed to our water supply and 2) it requires that we discontinue using Open Reservoirs to store our water. Neither LT2 requirement will add public health value to our water system.
Why LT2 Doesn’t Fit Portland
Bull Run water is nationally recognized as among the cleanest drinking water in the world, and our watershed enjoys unique federal legislative protections. Bull Run is a forested and undeveloped watershed on federal land, with restrictions on logging and entry of human and domestic animals (the usual sources of Crypto, viruses, bacteria and protozoa). These stringent watershed protections, some in place for over one hundred years and some legislated as recently as 2001, have increasingly been recognized by the EPA and the drinking water industry as the most cost effective strategy for protection of superb water quality. There have never been any demonstrated outbreaks of waterborne diseases associated with Bull Run water. LT2’s flawed, cookie cutter approach to source water management completely disregards the effectiveness of a closed, pristine water source like Bull Run in preventing disease outbreaks. Bull Run water does not need a treatment plant.
Open Reservoirs present their challenges, but they also bring great gifts. Open Reservoirs prevent water from going “stale”; they allow for the off-gassing of several dangerous toxins; and they expose our drinking water to a natural UV treatment = the sun (UV treatment prevents the growth of Cryptosporidium). Portland’s Water Bureau has been safely serving up water from our Open Reservoirs for generations, they have exacting standards and clear protocols for dealing with the real (not perceived) concerns of finished water that sits out in the open. Seagulls, dog toys, swimmers, you name it… they deal with it and maintain high quality water. The benefits of Open storage outweigh the risks, and it is our Bull Run source water in combination with our Open Reservoirs that makes our city’s water system sustainably and affordably pure.
LT2 “improvements” will effectively dumb down the engineering marvel of Portland’s system. In the last decade, two separate Portland community panels have exhaustively reviewed the costs and benefits of additional Bull Run treatment and eliminating Portland’s Open Reservoirs. Both panels concluded there would be little, if any health benefit to such actions.
LT2 projects will cost ratepayers close to $800 million dollars*4 — for improvements that will offer no measureable public health benefit; defying the adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Of course, with interest this will really cost close to $1.6 billion, and no cost projection includes the increase in annual maintenance costs (estimated to be about $16 million per year).
This year alone the Water Bureau is proposing a 19% rate increase, to begin covering LT2 compliance projects. According to Water Bureau’s current projections, we will see a double-digit rate increase each of the next 5 years, with your water bill doubling by the end of the 5th year. But that won’t cover the bill… we will likely see double-digit rate increases every year for decades. With significant rate increases, large industrial water users will not come to or thrive in Portland, and neither will the jobs they create (high-tech, restaurants, brewers…).
Not to mention, we will take what is essentially organic water (naturally filtered through the earth) and process it.