OPB News reported last week that the city of Portland has received a 10-year variance on an EPA requirement to filter drinking water from the Bull Run Reservoir. Portland officials welcomed this relief from a requirement that would have cost ratepayers as much as $60 million.
In recent comments to the media Bend officials indicate that they may consider asking for a similar variance. Whether this would meet with success or not is unknown at this point. Samples taken in the Tumalo watershed show a much higher prevalence of cryptosporidia cysts than those from the Bull Run watershed, from which Portland draws water. The well water Bend uses is not at risk for cryptosporidia, and does not require treatment.
“This news should cause the City to put a freeze on all further pipe and treatment spending so that it can evaluate its options given this new information,” said Bill Buchanan, a local attorney who has been following the SWIP since it was first introduced to the City Council in 2009. “It would be irresponsible to continue spending $20,000 to $30,000 per day on the most expensive alternative when so many cheaper and more reliable alternatives now exist,” Buchanan said. “Continuing to design a $20 to $30 million pipeline to a treatment plant that is unnecessary and can be replaced by existing well capacity at the flip of a switch is foolish. Bend has excellent well water and we should be maximizing our use of that resource.”
“This issue just muddies the waters for the City,” comments Bruce Aylward, an internationally recognized water economist who lives in Bend and has shown the City’s economic analysis to be upside down. “The City should have evaluated the variance issue up front, along with all the other alternatives, if the focus had been on providing clean, reliable and affordable water to City customers. Instead staff chose to build a hydropower project.” Current City estimates are that generating hydropower requires not only a power plant, but also a large and expensive pipeline, expected to cost ratepayers a total of $40 million.
A recent article in the Bulletin quotes a Portland official as saying that even going for the variance and complying with its terms is costly. Even if Bend were to obtain a variance the costs of this are quite uncertain, and could be as large as the treatment option as the Portland case demonstrates. “Given all the controversy and confusion over this project, the best thing is for City Council to put a hold on this project,” says Jack Holt, a local businessman and Bend Chamber member. Holt concludes, “There is so much contradictory evidence coming to light about the SWIP that taking a time out and putting spending on hold is the responsible thing to do at this point.”
Bend’s SWIP is a drain on ratepayers’ pockets, Tumalo Creek and Bend’s future. Visit www.stopthedrain.org to find out more.
