Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland’s Public Utility Review Board is expected to give a final recommendation Thursday on plans to shut down the city’s open reservoirs.

City officials plan to spend more than $300 million to decommission the open reservoirs in Mount Tabor and Washington parks, and build new storage tanks on Powell and Kelly Buttes.

The review board’s water subcommittee has already recommended moving ahead with that plan.

And Multnomah County’s top health official, Gary Oxman, said it was the right course, as well. 

“There are a number of potential risks – microbial contamination, chemical contamination and other problems with water quality degradation that can happen in open reservoirs,” Osman said.

Neighborhood activists, including the group, Friends of Reservoirs, say the open reservoirs don’t pose health risks.

But the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly blocked city efforts to keep the open reservoirs.

Portland officials basically stopped fighting the EPA over the reservoirs a few months ago. But they’re still hoping that EPA will grant a variance from the rules for Portland’s water source.

That’s the protected Bull Run watershed, near Mount Hood.