Watch members of Citizens for Portland's Water on
Portland Community Media streamed online here: (program starts at 1:40)
A Growing Concern

Watch This Video!  Citizens speak out- Water Issues take to the street

This video gives you an overview on what's been going on and what needs to happen to keep our water system pure from government overreach, private influence, and unhealthy and expensive projects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs31wBub4H4&feature=player_embedded#!

UPDATES - 2012  

ALERT: The BULL RUN WATER system is at risk! Attend a City Hall Meeting, Wed.,
May 23, 2:00pm in Council Chambers. The Bull Run Master Plan was started by the Portland Water Bureau 
(PWB) in spite of the lawsuit filed by citizens on February 27 of this year.  Commissioner Randy
Leonard ordered the construction to start on the UV plant intake pipes and he plans to fast track
the construction of the UV plant. Dave Leland of the Oregon State Health Department issued a decision
which is reported by Brad Schmidt online in the Oregon Live website today (May18).*
Already, our pristine Bull Run water is being drained very quickly in order to expose the dam for UV
pipe intake construction.  This activity by the PWB will cause Portlanders to rely on the Columbia Well 
Field drinking water. This is the back-up water supply that Portlanders will begin drinking in June
(or earlier) depending how quickly the project is done.  If you do not want to drink water from the 
Columbia River, come to the Council meeting or call the Mayor and Council members to object to the fast
tracking of this project.  PWB's own testing has shown there are no problems with cryptosporidium
exceeding standards.  The Portland Water Bureau has requested an 8% rate increase for PWB customers 
for the Julybilling cycle, but last Wednesday, the full Council requested more detailed deliberation
with the PWB before deciding on any rate increase for the PWB.  Help the Council make the right 
decision—to save our Bull Run Water and stop raising our water rates.
 
City Hall Meeting on Bull Run Water system
Wed. May 23, 2pm
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Portland (on 4th Avenue between Jefferson and Salmon streets)
* http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/05/portland_must_comply_with_plan.html


February 27, 2012 -
Citizens file appeal to challenge Bull Run Master Plan

PORTLAND ACTIVISTS CHALLENGE DEFECTIVE BULL RUN MASTER PLAN
            
PORTLAND, Ore., February 27, 2012--Portland Mayoral candidate and microbiologist
Scott Fernandez and  Portland citizen Nancy Newell have entered an appeal to halt
the City of Portland's Bull Run Master Plan. Their objection is that this flawed
land use decision will affect the pristine and federally protected Bull Run
Management Unit. Along with heavy equipment construction, trees will be cut, roads
will be disrupted, and drinking water quality may be negatively impacted. The
citizens are appealing the Master Plan to state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA)
because Portland City Council supports a process that according to microbiologist
and former Portland Utility Review Board member Scott Fernandez "has many
deficiencies that are financially wasteful and can produce an unnecessary and
extreme public health risk. Although viable alternatives are available, the Council
continues to plan and provide for an artificial Ultraviolet (UV) radiation plant for
a public health problem that does not exist." Mr. Fernandez states that "this
treatment process has a history of bulb breakage and toxic mercury exposure in
drinking water."  
 
The Master Plan also wants to provide water discharged into the Bull Run River to
lower the temperature, yet the "application licensee already acknowledges normal
circumstances won't bring temperature into compliance with intended benefits"
Fernandez said.
 
The unnecessary construction at Dam 2 brings in heavy equipment from around the
region. While the Portland City Council recently approved the next phase of
modification, Mr. Fernandez further states "we are deeply concerned there would be
harmful and undesirable contact from both invasive botanical and zoological species
brought in on the contaminated equipment. This would be a catastrophic event
jeopardizing Bull Run drinking water quality, and infecting the whole lower Sandy
River Basin with exposure to non-native fish, plants, etc., destroying native
wildlife as we now know it. There is no expectation that absolute removal of the
unwanted invasive species contaminants from equipment can be achieved before
exposure to our Bull Run drinking water." 
 





 
 





Oregon Health Authority- City of Portland Variance Comments  Citizen comment asking to- 
Repeal EPA LT2 Regulation

Date: December 29, 2011

To: Oregon Health Authority

Subject: City of Portland Variance Request

The unfortunate 1993 drinking water event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was a result of operator error and a catastrophic drinking water sewage exposure. However, those who were ill and those who died cannot lay blame on Cryptosporidium spp. as the sole etiological agent of disease in this sewage event. The primary assumption of Cryptosporidium spp. as the cause was erroneously based on identification from blocks of ice.  EPA directs; frozen samples of Cryptosporidium spp. are to be rejected based on morphological irregularities and therefore inconclusive. The 403,000 person estimate of illness was later dismissed because of poor statistical methodology. Only several hundred showed alleged positive stools, confirming the numbers remain exaggerated. Commercial labs analyzing Cryptosporidium spp. samples in 1994 were determined to be inconsistent and therefore unreliable. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wastefully spent trying to prove a Cryptosporidium spp. drinking water public health problem exists in municipally treated surface water utilities and open reservoir facilities. Yet not one of the EPA proposed benefits of this scientifically flawed regulation have come true. Since 1993 Milwaukee;

(1994 Las Vegas deaths from Cryptosporidium spp. and drinking water were later redacted)

All of the source water sampling, genotyping, cell culturing, scat analysis, etc., cannot bring to a logical conclusion the need for the EPA LT2 regulation. Individually and collectively these data variables are nothing more than assumptions based on estimates that are inconsistent, unreliable, and therefore scientifically unsupported. They are unable to demonstrate Cryptosporidium spp. as an inherent, let alone an emerging microbial public health problem from municipally treated surface drinking water.

There is a decades long-standing disconnect between; surface drinking water Cryptosporidium spp. public health evidence, and the continued waste of money to find a drinking water public health problem that does not exist. This was confirmed even a decade ago by the Bull Run Treatment Panel that added water treatment would provide “no measurable benefit”.

Ultimately the Variance process has provided little useful information with no expectation of a successful outcome because of continued use of flawed and scientifically unsupportable methodologies. As the next step we must acknowledge the unnecessary and wasteful spending needs to stop and request a complete Waiver from LT2 added drinking water treatment and covering open reservoirs. It is now time to repeal the historically onerous and scientifically unsubstantiated EPA Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Drinking Water Rule.

Sincerely,

Scott Fernandez           M.Sc. biology/ microbiology

Portland

Open Reservoirs Independent Review Panel 2004

Here is a link to an excellent historical article from the Portland Alliance written by Dave Mazza.  It provides an overview of the panel created by Commissioner Dan Saltzman, the Mt. Tabor Independent Review Panel, for the purpose of reviewing options for meeting pending EPA water quality rules and keeping the reservoirs and infrastructure secure.

What is noteworthy in this article is the heavy influence of engineering firms and lack of accurate and timely information to the panel- very similar to what is going on today in the EPA LT2 compliance issue.

http://www.theportlandalliance.org/2004/june/reservoir.htm

New York Wins!!

Now is the time to put your opinion to work.  New York has just gotten relief from the EPA and there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't either.  Our water is some of the safest and cleanest in the USA.

August 19th, 2011 EPA responded;

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/08/21/2011-08-21_feds_may_scrap_water_cap.html?r=news

EPA head Lisa Jackson wrote Schumer Friday to inform him that the agency would reevaluate the plan and may scrap the cap.

This [decision] is a huge victory for New York City ratepayers and residents, and for common sense," Schumer said yesterday. "I am pleased that the EPA has come around ...and will consider other innovative and safe ways to keep our water clean." City and state officials - and the Daily News editorial page - have long slammed the plan to build the lid over the reservoir near the Yonkers-Bronx border which supplies some of New York City's drinking water.

What's in Our Water?

Here is a link to a report that shows what chemicals have been found in our water supply and how they measure up to safe levels. Note that Arsenic, Radium, and Lead are at levels above what is considered healthy.

What Doesn't Get Tested in our Water?

This is an interesting article from the New York Times:  The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.

Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates.