Over 200 rally 'round Portland Reservoirs despite huge rain!

Click here to see our gathering in the pelting rain...

      And here.

Check it out: Candidate responses to Bull Run Water/System Questionnaire

Portland Water Users Coalition and Friends of the Reservoirs 

 CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE GENERAL ELECTION 2012

RALLY FOR CLEAN, AFFORDABLE BULL RUN WATER

WHAT: 

RALLY TO SHOW PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL AND CANDIDATES OUR SUPPORT FOR HISTORIC RESERVOIRS AND CLEAN, AFFORDABLE BULL RUN WATER

WHEN: This Sunday, October 28  3 - 4 pm

  

WHERE: Mt Tabor Park

Mt Tabor Reservoir 6 (Tabor's Lower Reservoir) located on SE 60th near Hawthorne

Hope to see you there!

Regna

Find your bus at http://www.trimet.org/index.htm

google Mount Tabor Reservoir 6

Rochester, NY gets reprieve while Portland, OR plows ahead

WOW - take a listen to this great story on KBOO!

Then join hands around the reservoirs on Oct. 28, 2012    3 pm

For more information about this important event see this page at http://www.friendsofreservoirs.org/

KBOO Update on WATR Litigation

Listen here to today's KBOO interview and update on litigation related to misuse and abuse of ratepayer dollars by the Portland Water Bureau.

Developments, drama with Portland Water Bureau budget

The Portland City Council approved higher water rates this week.
Read Oregonian article of May 31, 2012 here
Read the Oregonian article of May 30 here.
Heard on Lars Larson here.

Read the Portland Tribune article here and please note:


"At the request of Commissioner Amanda Fritz, the council has agreed at hold a work session on the controversial projects required by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency to cover or replace the city’s five open reservoirs."  We have important work ahead of us!

Commissioner Fritz Speaks Out

Listen to today's story by KBOO's Joe Meyer about the proposed increase in Portland water rates here.

Portland City Council Elections May 2012

Today the Portland Water Users Coalition and Friends of the Reservoirs released responses to Water Issues Questionnaire sent to some key candidates for Portland City Council.

This is an important reading assignment for you!

Because of my desire to protect clean, affordable water and the amazing Bull Run watershed, I support (as an individual and not on behalf of any organization):

Eileen Brady for Mayor

Amanda Fritz for Commissioner Position 1

Steve Novick for Commissioner Position 4

Ballots will arrive soon. Please return them by May 15 (Election Day and my Earth Day). 

Why Our Work Is Not Done

Listen to this OPB interview with Portland Water Bureau administrator David Shaff  this morning.  He confirms that the variance announced yesterday can be easily revoked because the state will not attempt to distinguish between types of cryptosporidium.  MOST are not infectious to humans yet any detection of any type will count against us. He characterizes the conditions set by the state as "3 strikes and you're out."   Yet another reason why we must act quickly to change the LT2 rule now under review by the EPA.

http://stream2.opb.org:9000/tol/episodes/2012/0315.mp3

Relevant discussion starts at minute 35:19 

Please take a moment today to thank Senator Jeff Merkley for helping us get this far in our efforts to protect the Bull Run and affordable, pure water.  His dedication and hard work has made a world of difference and will continue to be critical. Call his office and leave a message for him with his great staff.  


Portland office:  503.326.3386
DC office:         202.224.3753
or email by visiting http://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact/ 

Hurray! Bull Run variance secured!

Today the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced that a variance has been approved.

Click here for OHA webpage on the subject.   Click here for Oregon Public Health Division Press Release.    Click here for the final Order.  Click here for coverage by The Oregonian.  Click here for Commissioner Randy Leonard's blog on the subject.

Huge thanks to each of you who have fought consistently to protect the Bull Run from pollution, contamination and human disturbance. You have also protected rate-payers, for now, from the unnecessary, huge expense of a new treatment plant.  Click here for a partial list of those who supported the variance request to the OHA.  Congratulations!

While we've made significant progress, our work is not over...

The state can revoke this variance with future detections of cryptosporidium. The only EPA- approved method for detection of cryptosporidium is notoriously faulty, and the rule itself is not based on sound science.  This is why it is still so important to secure a permanent change in the federal LT2 rule, now under review by the EPA.

We also await news from OHA on the request from the Portland Water Bureau and our diverse coalition for an extension of the timeline for unnecessary burial and construction of in-town reservoirs.   Stay tuned!

Round #2 on Bull Run source water treatment variance

Today a broad and diverse coalition submitted our second round of comments to the Oregon Health Authority in support of that agency's notice of intent to grant Portland a variance from LT2 requirements to additionally treat Bull Run source water. We should know in March, 2012 what the final decision is. Deep thanks to all of you who have participated in this difficult process! Read our letter here.

Congratulations!

Our coalition is celebrating a victory today. The Portland City Council, in an unanimous vote this morning, agreed to request a 5 1/2 year delay in the EPA-approved LT2 construction schedule for burial and/or covering of our in-town open reservoirs.


Huge thanks go to to Commissioner Amanda Fritz for helping secure this well-deserved delay in expensive, unnecessary construction. (Remember: we just paid $40 million to upgrade our reservoirs in order to secure their safety through year 2050.) 


Also big thanks go to Senator Jeff Merkley for his engagement and commitment to help stave off LT2 requirements that threaten our Bull Run drinking water - the best in the nation!  Read about today's hearing in the Oregonian article here.

Save the Date: City Council Hearing February 1, 2012

Good News!

Yesterday we sent a letter to Commissioner Randy Leonard requesting that that he move immediately to schedule a City Council hearing before the Portland Water Bureau submits the City’s revised LT2 open reservoir compliance timeline to the Oregon Health Authority. Ratepayers and the Portland City Council deserve a transparent public engagement process to discuss this important issue, rather than allowing the Water Bureau to unilaterally make a decision on this controversial $400 million issue.

He responded that he will schedule a Council hearing next Wednesday (February 1). The agenda will be posted this Friday afternoon so we will not know until then whether it will be in morning or afternoon. Please stay posted for timeline and points to consider in preparing in your testimony. Thank you!

Bull Run Water - the most protected in the nation

While we await the results of further tests of Bull Run water, it’s important to review the basic facts. Portland has the most protected drinking watershed in the country. It’s specifically protected from infectious sources of Cryptosporidium (humans and domestic animals). The most expensive, intensive monitoring in the nation revealed zero Cryptosporidium in our water over the last ten years. Though there has been evidence of some oocysts (likely non-infectious to humans) in the past, there has never been, in over 100 years, any evidence of cryptosporidiosis infection originating in Bull Run water.  Regardless of the outcome of genotyping (which we support), there is no evidence that the single oocyst found at the intake was capable of infecting anyone. So long as protections remain in place, Bull Run water is the safest in the nation.  A treatment plant constructed to deal with a theoretical risk of cryptosporidiosis originating from this source would be a huge waste of precious and limited public resources.

Comments Submitted to OHA from Diverse Coalition

Our group letter containing comments on the proposed variance from the LT2 Bull Run source water treatment requirement was submitted to the Oregon Health Authority on January 3, 2011. Huge thanks to everyone who worked on the letter! View this link to see signees.

The final decision on the variance and conditions will be announced January 31, 2012.

Stay posted...

Great News!

Word came from the Oregon Health Authority today that it intends to grant a variance to the City of Portland from an absurd EPA requirement to additionally treat Bull Run water for Cryptosporidium. Finally, a sweet victory for COMMON SENSE!

This protozoa has never threatened Bull Run water because the primary sources (humans and domestic animals) are prohibited from entry into the Bull Run Management Unit.  We thank Senator Merkley (who helped the EPA understand the unique nature of the protected Bull Run), the OHA, the Portland City Council, the Water Bureau and those activists, organizations, and businesses who fought so long and hard to halt the unnecessary expenditure of at least $90 million (plus annual operating costs).  Thank you so much!

Now we need to submit comments to the OHA and encourage the agency to set more reasonable and less costly monitoring conditions with establishment of the variance. The only EPA-approved protocol for testing for Crypto is terribly flawed (according to water experts) and the agency's draft conditions rely far too heavily on that method. Stay posted for details on comments and plan to attend a hearing in Portland on December 14th.

Even then, our work is not done. We now call for a commitment from the Portland Water Bureau and the Portland City Council to focus and correct the second part of the flawed EPA rule (dealing with our historic reservoirs) as New York City is doing. As of today, we've accomplished what no other city has.  Let's keep up the good work!

PolitiFact more “politi” than “fact” today

When (in January 2011) the President ordered the EPA to open its ears, and take public comments regarding its regulatory practices, Portland had an opportunity to shine a new spotlight on EPA’s LT2 regulation and the unnecessary expenditures it forces upon our city.  Our City Hall submitted, via lazy online form, a handful of disjointed, poorly crafted paragraphs in which only 3 sentences even mentioned LT2.  Compare that with New York City’s response to this opportunity – they submitted over 100 pages, on letterhead, with scientific data detailing the flaws of LT2 and its blunt application across all water systems – and you see in New York a city that defines action. 

When (in July 2011) New York City’s meaningful, relentless efforts to extract LT2 reform (and save billions of dollars) manifested an official EPA agreement to review and reform LT2 madness, Portland had an opportunity to freeze all spending on every LT2 related project (Powell Butte tanks, Kelley Butte Tanks, Mt. Tabor disconnect).  But they didn’t.  Instead, our City Hall allows our Water Bureau to move forward with these projects under the claim that they were “in the long-range plan anyway”.  We’ll apparently need them in 50 years; never mind we can’t afford to upkeep them for the next 50 years until we need them; never mind that we already have more storage than we can use even without these new tanks; and never mind that the “long-range plan” from which these source was written 20 years ago, based-on what have become obviously incorrect consumption projections, and that the very Consultant who wrote this “long-range plan” now hopes we’ll stick to it no-matter-what because he’ll make billions on the construction of said projects.

Those citizens that read everything related to this issue know that PolitiFact just plain doesn’t get it, that Portland’s City Hall has NOT contributed meaningfully to this fight since 2009, and that there are more than enough examples of this kind of inept action (i.e. inaction) to make even the most polite Portlanders hot under the collar.

Let's get going!

Yesterday our coalition sent an appeal to Senator Jeff Merkley. Read the letter here.

Jeff has been an effective advocate for Bull Run for the past few years, having secured an important agreement with Lisa Jackson of the EPA. (The federal agency will not oppose a state variance that will allow Portland rate-payers to avoid unnecessary and wasteful construction and treatment of our Bull Run source water. That request for a variance is under consideration by the Oregon Drinking Water Program right now.)

Jeff was interviewed on OPB's Think Out Loud show today. (See Press Room.) There he stated that, given the new response from Lisa Jackson to a request sent by Senator Schumer-NY, he's ready to jump in to stop the unnecessary covering/treating of our in-town reservoirs, too, if given the clear support of the Portland City Council.

What are we waiting for? Let's get going!

Thank You!

Since our letter to Senator Wyden was sent last week, others have joined the call to action, including

• Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association
• Central Eastside Industrial Council
• Portland Business Alliance
• Eileen Brady, member of the Mt. Tabor Reservoirs Independent Review Panel (2004) and candidate for Mayor of Portland                                 

Finally - Breakthrough!

Today,  the Portland Water Bureau requested an indefinite time-out on its reservoir compliance schedule approved by the EPA and the State of Oregon. Read excerpts of a letter sent by David Shaff to David Leland at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Drinking Water Program below.  (See Press Room for text of full letter.)

"Last Friday in a letter from Administrator Lisa Jackson, the EPA reversed its longstanding refusal to review the requirements of the federal LT2 rule as they pertain to uncovered finished drinking water reservoirs. The reversal came in response to a July 20th request from Senator Chuck Schumer to the agency.   In the letter, the EPA states:

          “...as part of the Agency’s Final Plan for Periodic Retrospective Review of Regulations, as well     as the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Agency will review the LT2 rule. In doing so, EPA will reassess and analyze new data and information regarding occurrence, treatment, analytical methods, health effects, and risk from viruses, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium to evaluate whether there are new or additional ways to manage risk while assuring equivalent or improved public health protection.” 

"In light of this significant and unanticipated change in federal drinking water policy, the City requests an indefinite suspension in Portland’s uncovered drinking water reservoir compliance schedule during EPA’s review of the federal LT2 rule. It is critical to the City to remain in regulatory compliance with the LT2 rule during EPA’s review and it therefore seeks written approval from the Oregon Health Authority Drinking Water Program of Portland’s request for a suspension of the City’s state approved schedule."

Right on. The EPA has NO DATA on the health effects of open and/or closed reservoirs and it was foolish to establish a cookie-cutter rule that has no basis in science. Especially when the City of Portland has data showing that there is no illness related to water from our pristine source and from our uncovered reservoirs. 

While we don't agree with all elements of the The  Oregonian editorial that followed on the heels of the Water Bureau letter, we absolutely agree with the editors that:

"New York's success in getting the EPA to reconsider argues that maybe Portland's leaders could have put more muscle into winning regulatory relief, too. Ditto for the Oregon congressional delegation, which also could -- and should -- have been working harder behind the scenes." 

And we heartily endorse this sentiment: 

"Now it's time for everyone to step it up. Gone is the excuse that the EPA will never bend. Nonsense. Now, once again, Portland has the perfect opening to press its case. The delegation, the mayor and City Council must wring every advantage for Portland ratepayers from the EPA's newly open mind." 

It's high time. Let's go!