ROUGHLY a month from now, the Portland City council will decide whether to move forward with an expensive plant for treating Portlandâs very clean water, or a really expensive plant for treating Portlandâs very clean water. Â
Iâm guessing it will choose both.
This is purely unscientific, but sitting in on city council meetings, you get accustomed to seeing a glimmer in the eye of council members when they seize on something they like, and prick up your ears when they begin asking lots of follow-ups on one point or another. More often than not, those are trusty dousing rods pointing to future decisions.
On Tuesday, when council had its first formal hearing on how itâs going to treat the Bull Run water supply for the parasite cryptosporidium (often called âcryptoâ), there was plenty to divine.
The cityâs facing two essential choicesâat least as the issue is framed by Portland Water Bureau Director Mike Stuhr. Portland can treat its water system with ultraviolet light, at a cost of roughly $105 million. Or it can use a more comprehensive filtration system, which could cost $500 million or more.
We have until August 11 to decide.
Thereâs a lot to balance in this equation. At a time when the water bureau is building a seemingly endless stream of expensive shitâand therefore hiking up water ratesâthe UV plant is cheaper, and could be built in relatively short order. But it only does one thing: fry the crypto parasite.
Filtration is massively more expensive, and would take more than a decade to install. But thereâs also an argument that itâs ultra-effective, and will better position Portland to comply with regulations as they pop up.
âIf I was made of money... I would build a filtration plant and I wouldnât think twice about it,â Stuhr told council on Tuesday.
But Stuhrâs not made of money, and neither are you. So after council members began talking about laying groundwork for a filtration system in coming decades, the water bureau director made a pitch: Build the UV plant and run it for 25 or 30 years until the parts begin to fail. When they do, move forward with filtration.
âI would have it in my head to put money away for a filtration plant,â Stuhr said. âWhen the time came for this [UV plant] to get a time-out because itâs too old, I have planned and I have designedâ a filtration system.
Itâs a compromise that seemed to set elected officialsâ eyes a-glimmering, and as I said up top, Iâm guessing city council will largely follow Stuhrâs lead. But letâs also acknowledge this is a head-snappingly fast pivot for Portland.
Until this year, this city peacocked and flaunted its clean water supply to no end. We were the lone system in the country to not be required by the federal government to treat for crypto, which lives in animal droppings, because we had no crypto.
Then this winterâs wretched rains washed scads of the stuff into the watershed, causing 14 positive hits from January to March. Suddenly, Portlandâs unique federal hall pass is being revokedâeven though weâve not found crypto since March, and thereâs no indication anyoneâs health was jeopardizedâand weâre not talking about cleanliness of our water as much. Weâre talking about a $500 million, full-on filtration plant.
I donât have much doubt weâll get it, eventually. Whether itâs at all necessary is another matter.