Portland officials have temporarily paused construction on the city’s $2 billion water filtration plant east of Gresham following a state land-use ruling, marking yet another hurdle for the costly and contentious project as it faces a pressing regulatory deadline, reports Oregon Live.
The decision comes weeks after the Land Use Board of Appeals overturned a key portion of a conditional land-use permit necessary for the project, siding with opponents of the Bull Run water treatment facility. The ruling, issued on January 22, found that Multnomah County officials had failed to evaluate whether the plant’s construction on city-owned land near Oxbow Regional Park would negatively impact the area’s natural resources.
While the board upheld other elements of the permit, it ordered the land-use application back to Multnomah County for further review. With no parties challenging the ruling before the appeal deadline, the city must now await the county’s reassessment, which could take up to 120 days.
“There are many unknowns at this time—including the duration of the pause—but we’ll be working with the county and [the Land Use Board of Appeals] to better understand the timeline and project impacts in the coming days and weeks,” said Felicia Heaton, spokesperson for the Portland Water Bureau.
Regulatory deadline looms
Portland officials insist the new filtration facility must be operational by 2027 to comply with federal drinking water regulations, which require filtering out cryptosporidium and other contaminants. Failure to meet the deadline could lead to daily federal fines or force the city to issue boil water notices until the facility is completed.
The Bull Run water filtration plant is located on a large forested parcel purchased by the city in 1975, but the site is not zoned for the project, necessitating the conditional land-use permit. It was one of at least six locations evaluated when planning began nearly a decade ago.
Community opposition and rising costs
A group of rural residents, farmers, and businesses near the 95-acre construction site have long opposed the city’s largest public works project in years.
“This is a huge win for our community,” said Lauren Courter, a leading critic of the project. “Disrupting construction will cost the city more and further threaten their deadline. However, the cost to the city should not be blamed on community opposition. The city chose this site knowing its project could not meet the land-use restrictions. How can a $2 billion mega industrial project possibly be built with ‘no adverse impacts on natural resources’?”
Due to opposition and other complexities, the project has experienced multiple delays and cost increases, now reaching $2.1 billion—more than four times the $500 million estimate first approved by city leaders in 2017. After breaking ground last year, the city now has just over two years to complete construction by the September 2027 deadline.
City officials push for legislative relief
To prevent further land-use appeals from delaying construction, Portland officials are lobbying state lawmakers for legislative intervention. A proposed bill before the Oregon Legislature would exempt the city’s water filtration plant from the state’s typical land-use appeals process. If passed, the bill would allow “public health infrastructure facilities” to be built on any land if federal or state agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Oregon Health Authority, have set a deadline for their construction.
Project scope and future impact
Portland’s pristine Bull Run water supply, drawn from a vast watershed near Mount Hood, is currently treated only with chlorine and ammonia as disinfectants, as well as sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to control corrosiveness. However, in 2017, federal and state regulators mandated additional treatment after repeated detections of cryptosporidium in city water samples. While some critics argue that the detected strains are not harmful to humans, Portland must comply with the federal requirements.
In May 2024, Southland announced that its subsidiary, Oscar Renda Contracting, secured a contract to construct the Bull Run Filtration Facility. The project includes installing inlet structures, an ozone contact basin, flocculation and sedimentation basins, and roughly 37,000 linear feet of piping.
In 2020, Stantec, Carollo Engineers and other local firms, were selected by the Portland Water Bureau to provide on-site design services for the Bull Run Filtration Project. The facility is designed to remove cryptosporidium and will have a treatment capacity of 145 million gallons per day—sufficient to meet projected population demands through 2045.
Despite mounting challenges, city officials remain committed to completing the project. “Construction of the Filtration Facility is the right thing to do to protect public health,” said Mayor Keith Wilson. “We will continue to participate faithfully in the land-use process and look forward to addressing the issues on remand so we can get back to building this critical project as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.”
With regulatory deadlines looming and opposition persisting, the fate of Portland’s largest-ever water infrastructure project remains uncertain.
