Portland Water Bureau faces backlash over Carpenter Lane filtration plant

The Portland Water Bureau has broken ground on its Carpenter Lane filtration plant in Boring, but is facing pushback from neighbors and the Cottrell Community Planning Organization due to the discovery of contaminated soil on the building site.

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) -- Following years of planning and design, the Portland Water Bureau broke ground on its Carpenter Lane filtration plant in Boring earlier this summer garnering continued pushback from neighbors and the Cottrell Community Planning Organization.

In this fight between the rural residents and the city of Portland agency, there have been a handful of attempted question-and-answer events, meetings and now a Land Use Board of Appeals case in which the Cottrell CPO representatives, alongside six other organizations, are advocating for an appeal of the Multnomah County conditional use permit approval granted in November 2023.

Now the project is even more controversial because of the discovery of contaminated soil on the building site that must be removed.

The Portland Water Bureau began planning its new filtration plant in 2017, after a mandate from the Oregon Health Authority required the bureau build a facility to treat Bull Run water for cryptosporidium, a potentially deadly parasite, by 2027. This mandate was to bring the bureau into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule.

The project is being built in conjunction with a nearby facility intended to reduce lead in Portland water pipes. The current estimated cost of the Bull Run Treatment Projects is $2.13 billion. This has increased from a projected $500 million since 2017. It includes direct project costs, indirect costs, inflation, bond reserves, interest costs and a project contingency.

Read more at PortlandTribune.com.

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