Mayor Tom Potter agrees with neighborhood activists and large water users that fighting a pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that could increase water rates should be a top city priority.

After hearing from Friends of the Reservoirs and the Portland Water Users Coalition, Potter’s office drafted a council resolution calling for the EPA to allow Portland to opt out of the rule. It soon will be submitted to the City Council.

The pending rule is intended to combat cryptosporidium, a potentially deadly bacteria found in nature. As currently written, it will require cities with unfiltered water sources — like Portland — to remove 99 percent of the bacteria from the water it delivers to homes and businesses. Building a plant to process water to meet the rule would cost between $137 million and $220 million, according to Water Bureau estimates.

But local microbiologist Scott Fernandez says the Bull Run watershed is not contaminated with the bacteria.

“We should not be forced to raise water rates to build the kind of plant it would take to comply with this rule,” says Fernandez, who serves on the Portland Utilities Review Board.
Billing system delayed

The city will delay switching over to its new computerized utility billing system for six weeks, moving implementation into next year, according to Richard Hoßand, an analyst for the city Office of Management & Finance.

There are no serious problems with the new system, Hofland said. But city officials realized that the original “go live” date of Dec. 15 was unrealistic because it falls in the middle of the holiday season, making it difficult to train all the city employees who may be taking vacations at that time, he said. The new system is now set to begin working in February 2006.

The system was purchased from Cayenta Canada Inc. for $4.1 million in January 2004. It will replace the problem-plagued water, sewer and storm-water billing system that has cost the city an estimated $30 million in cost overruns, unpaid bills and lost interest.