Portland Water and Wastewater 101
Posted on April 30, 2014 by Janice Thompson
Tags, Consumers and Utility Customers, Legislative & Political, Portland Water, Sewer and Wastewater
If you’re registered to vote in Oregon, by now you’ve probably received your voter pamphlet for the May 20th election. If you live in Portland, you might have heard or read about Measure 26-156. Portland’s water and wastewater management is a complex topic that requires important background information to make an informed choice. CUB’s board elected to take a neutral stance on this matter, so CUB is here to help shed the light on this topic! We’ll be releasing a series of informative blogs before May 20th to help prepare voters just like you to make an educated decision on Measure 26-156. You can follow these updates by visiting our Portland Water, Sewer and Wastewater news feed. We’ll also be announcing new posts on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, so follow us on those channels to keep up with our new water and wastewater series!
Portland, like many local governments, provides water, sewer, and stormwater management services through its municipal utilities. Portland Water Bureau is the city agency that manages the Bull Run watershed. The Bureau’s work ensures that water flows to homes and businesses in pipes that run under the streets throughout our city. The Bureau of Environmental Services sends both stormwater (drainage from yards, roofs, streets, and parking lots) and sewage (what goes down sinks and toilets) into treatment plants.
Approximately one-third of each combined utility bill is allocated to the Water Bureau, and two-thirds goes to the Bureau of Environmental Services. As city agencies, the budgets and utility rates for these two bureaus are set by the Portland City Council.
Measure 26-156 proposes to take the City Council out of the equation and turn over management of the Bureau of Environmental Services and Portland Water Bureau to a seven member utility board. This raises the question of whether or not the structure of a utility has a significant impact on water or sewer rates, so that will be our next topic on Friday, May 2nd.
Let us know what questions you have about Measure 26-156, or water and wastewater services in general, by contacting Janice Thompson at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!
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04/05/17 | 1 Comment | Portland Water and Wastewater 101