Would you drink from the Willamette River?

Learn more on the initiative to keep voter control
over our water.

Water should be a right, not a profit center.

The Problem
Recent actions on the part of the Tualatin Valley Water District board have caused its customers great concern. In statements and actions they have said they will decide by the end of this year will they will connect to the Wilsonville Treatment Plant.

This would be a first step toward use of the Willamette River as the principal source of drinking water for the district.

*The Willamette River is known for the many noxious contaminants which enter its waters from the waste treatment plants, industrial plants, agricultural lands and urban areas which adjoin and drain into the river. Some of these contaminants are treated by the Willamette Treatment plant, but many others are either not yet identified, or no standards have yet been set for them by the EPA. Some products such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fertilizers and endocrine disrupters enter the river before health risks are known or contamination levels are tested. Due to inadequate resources, the Oregon DEQ relies mainly on self-regulation and self-reporting by the polluting companies to track industrial wastes that enter the river through the notorious toxic mixing zones.
*The Willamette plant is operated by Veolia, the American offshoot of a French transnational corporation which seeks to operate and/or buy into water resources in the United States, as well as many third-world countries. Public Citizen has documented a number of instances where this company has failed to meet its commitments in the operation of water treatment plants. For example in Indianapolis several employees of the Veolia operation are under indictment for falsifying water quality records. The company has been accused of cutting back on employees, water testing, purification chemicals and maintenance.
*The Willamette option would require an estimated $400 million to build a 22 mile pipeline uphill from the Willamette River to the urban sections of Washington County. It would require large amounts of energy to deliver the water on this uphill path.

Customers Opposed to Using the Willamette
For these reasons, residents of the District have repeatedly expressed their opposition to changing from Bull Run water, their current major source, to the Willamette. A 2005 poll of its customers conducted by TVWD showed the respondents preferring Bull Run water over Willamette river by 5 to 1.
There is an ordinance on the TVWD books which forbids the use of Willamette River water for drinking water in the District without a referral to and a positive vote of the residents in its district. But the District has recently allocated $12.5 million in its next budget for “expanding the Willamette Source.”

Citizens Start Initiative Drive
A growing number of concerned citizens has united to develop an initiative which will prohibit the Board from spending any further money on the Willamette River unless such proposed expenditures are submitted to a vote of the people and have received a majority Yes vote from them.

We are concerned about the TVWD Board's proposal to impose an expensive water resource that the majority of its customers feel is not safe. We are further concerned that doing so would likely lead to expansion of the number of water systems in the area operated by a private firm without accountability to the voters.