The under-construction Bull Run water filtration plant has received recognition for its environmental performance by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

The nonprofit industry group gave the Bull Run project its highest honor — the Envision Platinum Award — for the project’s “comprehensive approach to sustainability and resilience throughout project planning, design and construction.”

Bull Run is expected to become operational in 2029, delivering filtered water to nearly 1 million customers in Portland and the surrounding area.

“This recognition reflects the care, collaboration, and long-term thinking behind the Bull Run filtration project, one of the most significant infrastructure investments in Portland’s history,” Deputy City Administrator for Public Works Priya Dhanapal stated in a news release. “It protects public health, strengthens system resilience and ensures safe, reliable drinking water for Portlanders for generations.”

Under way in rural southeast Multnomah County, the massive water project is expected to cost $2.56 billion. Crews led by a joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit Corp. broke ground in June 2024. They were forced to halt construction for a year while project opponents appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. Construction resumed in February.

The institute commended the project’s use of gravity-fed water conveyance, which reduces energy use and improves reliability compared to pumping; engaging community input, supporting minority-owned, woman-owned and disadvantaged contractors; and protecting sensitive wetlands and native plants.

Bull Run “demonstrates the city of Portland’s commitment to building a facility that delivers clean, safe, reliable drinking water while also strengthening environmental resilience and sustainability,” Mayor Keith Wilson stated.

The institute, based in Washington, D.C., was founded in 2010 by the American Public Works Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Council of Engineering Companies.

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Portland officials on Thursday said the city will request a two-year extension to complete the massive Bull Run Filtration Project.

Meanwhile, the project’s estimated cost has risen sharply. The water filtration and distribution project is now expected to cost $2.56 billion — a $450 million increase.

City officials blamed increased costs on an extensive land use process that included the response to an appeal made to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

“We are doing everything we can to expedite the delivery of this crucial investment in Portland‘s economic viability and the public health and safety of our people,” Mayor Keith Wilson stated in a news release.

on Wednesday that the project could proceed despite objections from the Cottrell Community Planning Organization, which was joined by the Multnomah County Rural Fire Protection District No. 10 and 1000 Friends of Oregon in challenging the infrastructure project.

City officials were forced to halt construction on the project in February 2025 as the land use appeal played out.

The Portland Water Bureau is on the hook to meet a September 2027 deadline to deliver filtered water to the utility’s nearly 1 million customers. The city reached an agreement with the Oregon Health Authority to provide filtered water after the parasite cryptosporidium was repeatedly detected in the city’s water supply.

The seismically resilient and weather-resistant filtration plant will provide safe and consistent water following a major earthquake, landslide, wildfire or major storm, Wilson stated.

The project is being built by a joint venture of water-plant specialist MWH Constructors and construction giant Kiewit Corp. in a rural area of east Multnomah County near the Clackamas County line. The joint venture broke ground on the site in June 2024.

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A neighborhood group opposed to construction of the $2.1 billion Bull Run water filtration plant isn’t giving up yet.

On Friday, an attorney for the Cottrell Community Planning Organization filed a notice of intent to appeal a Multnomah County hearings officer’s determination that the infrastructure project could proceed.

The Cottrell group earlier appealed a county hearings officer’s determination to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Then in January, LUBA remanded the matter back to a hearings officer.

After an April hearing, hearings officer Liz Fancher ruled in June that the project could resume construction.

Cottrell, represented by Bateman Seidel attorney Carrie Richter, has argued the county failed to fully consider natural resources in its decision approving construction. (Editor’s note: Richter co-writes monthly land use commentaries to the 91��Ƶ.)

The Portland Water Bureau halted work on the massive project in February after the remand. Construction is only now ramping up, Water Bureau spokesman Brandon Zero said.

Zero vowed the Water Bureau will move forward.

“We will continue to address whatever issue is brought forward because nearly a million people around the region depend on us to provide clean and safe water,” he stated in an email on Friday. “Unfortunately, the cost of this appeal will ultimately be borne by our customers, even though it stems from objections raised by a small group of residents who live near the site. We have won at every stage in the land use process, including the recent Multnomah County hearings officer decision to reapprove our permits.”

Zero added that Fancher’s June decision “reaffirms this is the right place and the right time for this project.”

The city of Portland faces a Sept. 30, 2027, regulatory deadline to provide filtered drinking water to customers after a parasite was repeatedly found in the city’s water supply.

Construction on the infrastructure project is led by a joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit Corp. They broke ground on the site in June 2024.

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Construction of the $2.1 billion Bull Run water infrastructure project can resume after a Multnomah County hearings officer gave the go-ahead, the Portland Water Bureau announced.

“As of Monday, we’re going to start doing minor work to prepare the site, and we anticipate to be in full swing within a month,” Water Bureau spokesman Brandon Zero said Thursday.

Construction of the megaproject has been halted since February, after the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ruled that another hearings officer had not adequately considered community natural resources in approving the project’s conditional use.

Hearings officer Liz Fancher ruled Monday with approval of the project’s conditional use exception.

“This decision allows us to move forward to protect public health, and to provide resilience to wildfires, landslides, flooding and other natural disasters,” Mayor Keith Wilson stated in a news release on Wednesday. “T��� city is eager to put hundreds of construction tradespeople back to work to complete these critical water system improvements.”

A joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit Corp. is building the project.

The project, which comprises a water filtration plant near the Clackamas County line and a network of pipelines, has faced opposition from a neighborhood group, the Cottrell Community Planning Organization.

The project team is working to meet a Sept. 30, 2027, deadline to deliver filtered water to the Water Bureau’s approximately 1 million customers in the Portland-metro area. The deadline was imposed on the Water Bureau by the Oregon Health Authority after cryptosporidium was repeatedly found in drinking water.

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The Portland Water Bureau has completed upgrades to its Lusted Hill treatment facility intended to reduce lead exposure in home drinking water.

With the improvements, the system now uses sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to increase the pH and alkalinity of Bull Run water, making it less corrosive to lead and other metals found in some home and building plumbing.

MWH Constructors served as general contractor for the project. The upgraded treatment system came online last week.

The project team exceeded equity contracting goals, according to the Water Bureau. More than $4 million, or approximately 55 percent of the project’s hard construction costs, was subcontracted to firms certified by Oregon’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID); the city’s goal was 22 percent.

More than 11,000 work hours were performed by minority or women apprentices and journey-level tradespeople; that participation percentage exceeded the city’s goal of 31 percent, the Water Bureau stated.

One percent of the contract dollars will be invested in the city’s Community Opportunities and Enhancement Program that provides grants to increase diversity of construction industry business owners and tradespeople in Portland.

“T��� Improved Corrosion Control Treatment Facility is our strongest tool yet to make drinking water safer for everyone, regardless of the plumbing inside their home, school and building,” Water Bureau Director Gabriel Solmer stated in a news release. “I am proud of our dedicated water quality and operations teams who have honored our commitment to the community.”

The project was financed in part by a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That money helped maintain affordable water rates, the bureau stated.

The Water Bureau is planning to build a new plant to filter cryptosporidium, a harmful microorganism. Construction is expected to begin next year. The plant must be online by Sept. 30, 2027, to comply with state and federal rules.

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The city of Portland is moving forward with a nearly $18 million project to construct a treatment facility that will reduce the amount of lead in its drinking water.

The Improved Corrosion Control Treatment project is being carried out to meet the requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s Lead and Copper Rule. The Portland Water Bureau and the Oregon Health Authority agreed to a compliance schedule that requires the facility to be in operation by April 2022.

Portland City Council voted Wednesday to accept a guaranteed maximum price of $17,989,637 from MWH Constructors to serve as the project’s construction manager/general contractor. The global firm, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, is the parent company of Stayton-based Slayden Construction Group.

The new treatment facility will be located alongside the Water Bureau’s existing Lusted Hill treatment facility in east Multnomah County. The facility will include a new building to house treatment systems, a utility water pump station, and associated piping and support systems.

The aim of the project is to reduce lead exposure from home plumbing systems by using sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to increase the pH and alkalinity of the water. The increased alkalinity will improve the stability of the pH, which increases the effectiveness of the treatment and reduces the levels of lead at the tap by decreasing the amount of metals leaching from pipes into the water.

MWH Constructors was selected as CM/GC by an evaluation committee that reviewed three proposals submitted in January 2019. The project’s design process commenced in mid-2018, and construction is expected to commence this summer following execution of the contract.

MWH Constructors has committed to dedicating 25.91 percent of the project’s hard construction costs, or $2,460,409, to firms certified by the state’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID). The project is one of three being monitored by the city’s Community Equity and Inclusion Committee, which provides oversight of Community Equity and Inclusion Plan (CEIP) projects valued between $10 million and $25 million to ensure that contracting and employment opportunities are provided for racial and ethnic minorities, women and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Projects executed under the CEIP have higher participation goals than those that are not. The plan requires 22 percent participation by COBID-certified firms, as well as performance of 31 percent of total apprentice-level labor hours and 28 percent of total journey-level labor hours by minorities and women.

MWH Constructors will self-perform about $4.7 million worth of the project’s hard construction costs, and approximately $9.5 million of remaining work will be distributed through a subcontracting plan in accordance with the CEIP. As part of a pre-construction services contract, MWH Constructors has advertised four early procurement packages for various aspects. The remaining subcontracts will be advertised after a construction contract is executed.

The project is one of two included in the Water Bureau’s Bull Run treatment projects program, which also includes the approximately $800 million Bull Run filtration project. Both projects were included in a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan application filed by the bureau earlier this year; that loan will provide up to $745 million of funding for the projects.

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Stayton-based Slayden Construction, a subsidiary of global firm MWH Constructors, has broken ground on a $13.9 million project to upgrade the Willow Lake Cogeneration Facility at Salem’s wastewater treatment plant.

The existing cogeneration system, in operation since 1988, “generates power from biogas produced as a byproduct of wastewater treatment processes,” according to the city’s website. However, the system “is at the end of its useful life and is undersized,” the city states.

A new cogeneration building will be constructed to house a Peterson-Caterpillar diesel generator for burning surplus methane and producing electricity. This new system will double the power output at Willow Lake to 1.2 megawatts. It’s expected to save the city up to $300,000 annually in energy costs.

“How the process typically works is they bring in raw sewage, clean it up and run it into the digesters,” Slayden project manager Ryan Imel said. “T���y’re just stomachs; they live off bacteria, and when it decomposes they start to off-gas methane. It’s a dirty, wet methane, and what they’ve found is with a little bit of effort you can treat that methane and burn it.”

Construction of the plant expansion won’t be technically difficult, Imel said.

“T���y use large diesel generators to burn that off-gas and make electricity for the plant,” he said. “And our project is to construct a new building for the (cogeneration) system and install a new diesel engine. That will double the output of the plant, and I believe the plant is set up to consume that power, so they power their own gear with that.”

The plant improvements also will reduce the amount of pollution released into the air by an estimated 5,000 metric tons annually.

While the construction method may be orthodox, scheduling and organization pose challenges, Imel said.

“It’s definitely a puzzle,” he said. “Because while we’re doing this, everything has to remain running. You cannot interrupt service. So a lot of that puzzle that has to be figured out before we dive in and start disconnecting things.”

Construction began earlier this month and is expected to finish by mid-summer 2020. As general contractor, Slayden will handle the entire project scope and self-perform demolition, civil, concrete, mechanical and piping work.

Project funding partners include the cities of Salem and Keizer as well as Portland General Electric and the Energy Trust of Oregon.

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