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EPA announces $319m WIFIA loan for Oregon drinking water system upgrades

  • EPA announces $319m WIFIA loan for Oregon drinking water system upgrades

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U.S. EPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency. The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.

On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $319 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the City of Portland, serving Oregon’s Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. The loan supports construction of the new Bull Run Treatment Projects to meet federal and state safe drinking water standards, and it will help protect the public health of nearly 1 million residents.

This is the city’s second WIFIA loan, bringing their total WIFIA loans to over $1 billion for the Bull Run Treatment Program. The WIFIA program’s loan deferment capabilities and advantageous terms will help the city save an estimated $140 million over the life of the loan.

"Thriving communities expect and depend on reliable drinking water,” said Wendi Wilkes, EPA Director of Infrastructure Implementation for EPA Water. “These two WIFIA loans mark the largest EPA contribution ever to a drinking water project, and an impressive step forward for the City of Portland as they ensure safe drinking water for their residents.”

With this funding, Portland will construct a new filtration facility and related pipelines from their Bull Run supply to filter out a pathogen called Cryptosporidium, before it goes to customers. In addition to removing Cryptosporidium from the Bull Run water source, filtration will provide consistent, high-quality drinking water to meet today’s water quality standards, help address future risks and regulations and improve system resilience.

The projects will help create 6,100 jobs, and over $400 million will go to firms certified by the Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID). This highlights the City of Portland’s ongoing initiative to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion. The City of Portland’s Water Bureau invests in a job apprenticeship program that recruits individuals from diverse backgrounds and life experiences to learn trade skills and earn rewarding jobs throughout the bureau.

The construction contracts for the new filtration facility and pipelines will include Community Benefits Agreements that set workforce equity goals for people of color and women in the trades. The contracts also maximize opportunities for Disadvantaged, Minority-Owned, Women-Owned, Emerging Small Businesses, and Service-Disabled Veterans Business Enterprise contractors and subcontractors.

“Securing another major WIFIA loan for the Bull Run Treatment Program is a huge step forward in our work to ensure clean, safe, and reliable water for Oregonians,” Senator Jeff Merkley said. “Oregon’s leaders deserve a tremendous share of the credit for this milestone, as it was their persistence in brainstorming solutions to water infrastructure challenges that led me to create the WIFIA program. With this new federal backing, not only will Portland-area folks be getting safer drinking water, but we will be creating thousands of construction jobs and saving working families money in the process. This is exactly the win-win-win WIFIA was created to achieve for our communities.”

“Last summer a wildfire burned within two miles of our drinking water facilities in the Bull Run,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. “Filtration is the versatile solution Portland needs to address the water quality risks posed by the seismic, wildfire- and weather-related issues we will face in the future.”

“Our first and most important priority is to reliably deliver safe, clean water to the nearly 1 million people who depend on us,” said Water Bureau Director Edward Campbell. “This filtration facility is a long-term investment that will pay dividends in protecting our livability, our economy, and our health now and for generations to come. And with the support of the EPA and this low-interest financing, we’re able to reduce the costs of this valuable project for our community members.”

“The investments we're making in Bull Run Filtration and throughout Public Works will create jobs today and provide safe, reliable infrastructure for our community members, businesses, and industries to thrive,” said Deputy City Administrator Priya Dhanapal. “Considering direct and secondary Bull Run Treatment project impacts, the total economic contribution to the tri-county study area is more than $1.59 billion in output over a 10-year period.”

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