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A Multnomah County hearings officer indicated she will rule in June on a remand of the Bull Run water infrastructure project.

Lawyers for the Portland Water Bureau and a neighborhood group, the Cottrell Community Planning Organization, faced off in a hearing on Wednesday.

A joint venture last year began building for the city a $2.1 billion water filtration plant and pipeline system. The team now must await the decision by hearings officer Liz Fancher, a semi-retired Bend land-use lawyer.

Fancher鈥檚 task is to decide on a remand from the state Land Use Board of Appeals, which ruled that a prior hearings officer for the county had not adequately considered community natural resources in approving the project鈥檚 conditional use.

As a result, the Water Bureau ordered a halt to construction in February, and some tradespeople were left jobless.

Fancher told both sides that at this point she is undecided.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how I鈥檓 going to decide the case one way or the other,鈥� she said.

Fancher also expressed confusion about the substance of LUBA鈥檚 remand.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 not absolutely clear, when you read the decision, what LUBA wants us to do,鈥� she said.

The hearing will be followed by submittals of more evidence and final arguments from both sides.

鈥淚 promise I will do my best to write a prompt decision and issue it as soon as possible once I have all of the evidence,鈥� Fancher said.

The Water Bureau faces a Sept. 30, 2027, deadline to provide filtered water to customers after the parasite cryptosporidium was repeatedly found in Portland鈥檚 water supply. The Water Bureau serves nearly 1 million customers in the region.

The city 鈥減ut in a lot of effort into this project to make sure we do not adversely affect natural resources,鈥� said David Peters, the bureau鈥檚 Bull Run program director.

Project planners took pains to avoid protected areas east and southwest of the site, and routed pipelines to avoid crossing Beaver Creek, said Katherine Thomas, an assistant county attorney.

The former nursery site is irreplaceable, neighbors and farm advocates said. The 90-acre property in southeast Multnomah County was a plant nursery, and the surrounding area is dotted with nurseries and greenhouses.

Steve Smith, an Alsea wildlife biologist who was hired by the Cottrell group to assess the site, said conditions on the ground were unfavorable to wildlife.

鈥淭here is really nothing left to assess,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has been destroyed.鈥�

Neighbors pointed to impacts on wildlife and potentially water wells. One resident said her artesian water well is worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Another neighbor, Jesse Nelson, a nurseryman, showed a video of animals moving around property near the site. Trail cameras captured video of elk, a cougar, bobcats and other large mammals.

Construction has already disrupted wildlife, neighbors said.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 see eagles resting in the trees that were along Dodge Park,鈥� said Deb Wilson, who lives near the site. 鈥淭he great horned owls that I used to see, and hear them, I don鈥檛 anymore. I miss that.鈥�

The project team has prepared to remove 433 trees. The Water Bureau has pledged to replace them in even greater numbers.

Multnomah County code, if read literally, would prohibit essentially all construction, Fancher said. Approval criteria must find that a community service use, such as Bull Run plant operations, 鈥渨ill not adversely affect natural resources.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 rather persuasive to me that it鈥檚 basically impossible to do this type of community use project without having an impact on natural resources,鈥� Fancher said.

Carrie Richter, a Bateman Seidel lawyer representing the Cottrell group, said the county鈥檚 mitigation plans necessarily mean the project creates adverse effects. (Richter co-contributes monthly land use commentaries to the 91视频.)

Fancher argued that standard creates an excessively high bar.

鈥淚t seems completely unrealistic to think anything built anywhere would have no natural resources effects whatsoever,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 literal application of what you鈥檙e arguing creates an impossibility.鈥�

Construction labor groups urged Fancher to allow resumption of the project.

Tyler Smith, representing Ironworkers Local 29, said he knew of a single mother who installed reinforcing steel at the site before the project was halted.

鈥淪he is now out of work and struggling,鈥� Smith said.

He later added, 鈥淚 would like to ask folks to consider expediting the process to get folks back to work with good family-wage jobs.鈥�