UPDATED 11/30/2011
To meet federal regulations enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requiring major municipalities to better protect their drinking water, a Portland land use hearings officer has given the green light on another project aimed at replacing the three open-air reservoirs at Mount Tabor, this time approving a plan for a buried 25 million-gallon storage tank at Kelly Butte.
According to Tim Hall, the Portland Water Bureau's (PWB) senior public outreach coordinator, the Kelly Butte project, estimated to cost $90 million, could commence as early as next summer and be online as early as spring 2014.
To comply with the EPA's mandate, Hall says the cost of the Kelly Butte project and similar water storage replacement projects at Powell Butte and Washington Park are estimated to total just over $400 million.
However, Hall says the city's congressional delegation is seeking from the state of Oregon a suspension of the EPA's timeline, which the state is charged with implementing, to disconnect the city's five open air reservoirs. The EPA has mandated that Mount Tabor's open reservoirs are to be disconnected in 2015 and that Washington Park's two open-air reservoirs be disconnected by 2020.
Should the state's Health Authority (OHA), which is in consultation with the EPA, allow the city to delay the mandated timelines, Hall says the PWB would be given more time to implement the projects, thus spreading their collective costs across the span of several more years. Such a delay, he says, will in turn alleviate the burden of of the projected costs on ratepayers over several more years, rather than over the next two to eight years.
In addition, Hall said that cryptosporidium, the parasite the EPA is most concerned about, and which they fear could turn up in the city's reservoirs, has so far not been detected in the the Bull Run watershed, the city's primary source of drinking water.
Hall says the OHA's decision as to whether or not to delay disconnecting the open reservoirs is anticipated to come in early 2012.
UPDATE 11/30/2011: Just as this story was published, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) distributed a press release announcing that they intend to grant a variance, requested by the city of Portland, on a rule that would've required the city to treat water from the Bull Run Watershed for the parasite cryptosporidium.
After examining the available science testing the source for the parasite, OHA has determined that the city has demonstrated, as required by state and federal clean drinking water directives, there is no need to treat the water for the parasite at the intake.
The variance, if granted, will be subject to several conditions, including the directive that the city routinely check the water at the intake for cryptosporidium.
A public hearing has been called, giving Portland residents a chance to weigh in on the OHA's intention. The hearing will take place from 5-7 p.m., Wednesday, December 14, in room 1B of the State Office Building at 800 NE Oregon Street.
A final decision by the OHA is planned for January 31, 2012.
Portland's delay request is in response to New York City's success in getting EPA to consider revising the unduly burdensome LT2 rule providing options beyond "treating or covering" for non-existent contaminants. Extensive sampling at the outlets of the open reservoirs confirms that Portland already meets the goal of this poorly-crafted rule. According to public health officials there is no Cryptosporidium problem from our Bull Run open reservoir system. The unnecessarily fast-tracked time schedule put forward by the PWB can easily be altered. The goal is not to delay the burdensome projects but to avoid the waste all together. The cozy-consultant contracts need to be terminated and the projects moth-balled. In June the Bureau closed out a $23 million open reservoir upgrade project, projects designed to keep the open reservoirs in good shape until 2050 per a nine-year consultant study. When the EPA rule is revised in 2012, the changes will apply to all systems, not just NYC. By proceeding with the costly projects, the PWB is simply wasting tens of millions of dollars. The time schedule was not imposed by the EPA, it was unnecessarily fast tracked by the PWB to thwart community will, to get projects underway before the community could intervene. To read the broad-based community support for permanent avoidance of these wasteful burial projects visit :http://friendsofreservoirs.org/ or http://foresttofaucetpdx.blogspot.com/ The following summary is from the American Water Work's Association newsletter, Streamlines USEPA to review LT2 requirement to cover reservoirs Under a White House order to eliminate unduly burdensome regulations, USEPA plans to review Long-Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2) requirements for controlling microbial risks, including covering reservoirs. Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson outlined the LT2 Rule review in a letter to US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who had complained about inflexible enforcement of the LT2 requirement that would force New York City to spend $1.6 billion to cover a reservoir. Jackson wrote, "I agree with you that we should and can find cost-effective ways of achieving these public health protections." In reviewing the LT2 Rule, Jackson said the agency 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. As we conduct our review we intend to consider innovative approaches for public water systems, including those employed at the Hillview Reservoir, while meeting the SDWA requirement to maintain or improve public health protection for drinking water." Schumer's letter to Jackson in July called on USEPA "not to inflexibly pursue a very costly, burdensome and potentially unnecessary reservoir-covering requirement that would force New York City to build a $1.6 billion concrete ceiling over Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers." The reservoir has been providing "clean, drinkable water for 95 years without any major health concerns," he said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg thanked Jackson in a statement, saying "We are confident that the EPA will ultimately come to the conclusion that a one-size-fits-all rule is inappropriate in this case, and New York City does not need a 90-acre concrete cover to protect water we are already successfully keeping clean." "The announcement that EPA is going to reassess this onerous regulation is a huge victory for New York City ratepayers and residents, and for common sense,” said Schumer. Posted: 09/06/2011
1 likeCommissioner Leonard and Mayor Adams have state, on TV, that they will be urging EPA to waive the reservoir replacement requirement for Portland, as they have indicated they will likely do for New York City. This is the best strategy, as these new reservoir projects are totally unnecessary. Yet here, the Water Bureau says they are not seeking to avoid the projects but merely delay them. Which is the City's strategy, avoidance or delay? Were Commissioner Leonard and Mayor Adams telling the truth? Or is the Water Bureau simply out of control? Who is running this show, the elected officials or the bureaucrats? Kent Craford, Portland Water Users Coalition
Thank you, Floy Jones and Kent Craford for your excellent, solid comments on this disingenuous article. As usual, our corrupt Water Bureau forges on with their unnecessary and outrageous burial plans, wasting millions and millions of ratepayer dollars. What the "green light" means is that now the WB can quickly get more multi-million dollar contracts signed with their cozy consultant (also ex-Water Bureau employee). Shameful.