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Read back issues of the Portland Observer at www.portlandobserver.com
City of Roses
Volume XXXXI, Number 30
years
Wednesday • July 27, 2011
River deemed
healthy as
progress made
on sewers
by M indy C ooper
T he P ortland O bserver
Warm-weather days are finally
arriving within Portland, and resi
dents throughout the metro-area are
looking for healthy places to swim
within the city.
According to the state of Oregon
Department of Environmental Qual
ity, despite historically high-levels
of bacteria present within its waters,
the portion of the Willamette River
in Portland that runs under the
Hawthorne Bridge is safe for resi
dents to swim in.
The Department of environmen
tal Quality, which monitors bacteria
levels and water quality monthly,
said fewer than three percent of
water samples in the past decade
have shown unhealthy levels of
bacteria under the Hawthorne
Bridge, downtown.
“I think there are a lot of miscon
ceptions that it isn’t safe,” said
Doug Drake, the Lower Willamette
River Coordinator for the DEQ.
Historically, concerns circled
around the high bacteria levels from
sewer overflows and rain run offs.
Drake said this is because pipes laid
several years ago were designed to
combine both rainwater and sewer
water and overflow when the area
received too much rain.
“In most of Portland there is a
combined sewer system because it
is more economical,” said Line
Mann, the Bureau of environmental
Services Spokesperson. “It com
bines two kinds of sewage.”
According to the Portland Bu
reau of Environmental Services,
PHOTO BY M a rr Washington/The P o rti AND Observer
Portland s combined sewers over- The Willamette River at the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland gets good marks for water quality except
flow into the Willamette River on an during periods o f rain, which is occurring less frequently because o f the city’s efforts at stopping
average of 100 days per year during rainwater from overflowing sewers.
^ e community
n m m u n i t v service
vervi
wet weather—and any Portlander
knows rain in the city is not a rare
occurrence.
The combined system, explained
Mann, includes sanitary sewage,
which is anything that goes down a
drain, and rainwater run-off. “The
catch basins in some parts of Port
land are connected to each other,”
he said. “This is why it is called a
combined system.”
Because the combined sewer
overflows carry raw sewage that
pollutes water and threatens qual
ity of life, the city’s environmental
services said controlling the run
offs and CSOs is an important part
of efforts to improve the Willamette
River water quality.
“What happens is if you get
enough rain, then the systems be
come completely full and then over
flow into the river,” said Mann.
Drake said this catalyzed the City
of Portland to begin construction,
mandated by the DEQ, for the Big
Pipe Project, which began almost
two decades ago.
Mann, who has worked with the
city’s environmental services for
14-years, said he believes it is the
right thing to do to get sewage out
of the Willamette River.
“We signed an agreement with
the Oregon Department of Environ
mental Quality 20 years ago, and
since then we have spelled out sev
eral guidelines and reached several
milestones,” he said.
The City of Portland broke
ground on the last of the East Side
Big Pipe project, the largest sewer
construction project in Portland his
tory, in 2006. The $464 million East
Side Big Pipe is the last in a series of
projects dating back to 1991 to con
trol combined sewer overflows to
the Columbia Slough and
Willamette River. “We have to fin
ish the program by December 2011,
and we are on track to that,” said
Mann, who added, the completion
will make it safer for people to swim.
continued
on page 10