Construction remains paused through late June on Portland's $2B water treatment site
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Construction on Portland’s multi-billion-dollar water filtration site may be paused through late June as a county hearings officer determines the project’s impact on natural resources.
Multnomah County first approved a conditional-use permit for the water treatment site in 2023. The $2.1 billion filtration facility allows the city to meet federal requirements to treat its water for cryptosporidium – a parasite commonly found in groundwater.
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However, opponents of the project appealed to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals for a number of reasons – including the project’s impact to natural resources. The board released a ruling in January agreeing with opponents that the original hearings officer did not adequately address the project’s impacts to natural resources.
The state remanded the decision back to Multnomah County. This month, the county held a remand hearing on the natural resources issue.
The definition of natural resources in Multnomah County’s current comprehensive plan is broad and includes things like wildlife and agricultural resources. The city’s attorneys argued the definition should be narrower in this case and contended the finished facility is better for wildlife in the nearly six-hour hearing earlier this month.
Ian and Lauren Courter – two neighbors opposing the project – believe the city’s position on the facility’s impact to natural resources contradicts the position the city council just took on a PGE project in Forest Park. In that, the city council tentatively voted to overturn a decision allowing PGE to expand its transmission lines in Forest Park.
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“It seems like they are turning a blind eye to what’s happening out in the rural areas and turning a blind eye to the natural resource effects that the city is having on this community and this area,” Lauren said.
Union reps for workers on the site testified in support of the project and said they wanted to get back to work. Opponents said the workers should blame the Water Bureau for the work stoppage since it started work before the appeals process was over.
We asked the city why it did so, and a spokesperson pointed to the September 2027 state deadline to have the facility operational.
“If we waited to start construction until every appeal had been exhausted, the project would not meet that deadline,” the spokesperson said.
The city said it won’t know the cost of the delay — and its impact to the total cost — until it’s over. A hearings officer is scheduled to release a land-use decision by June 25.