Hazelwood HydroPark

Hazelwood HydroPark

About

Every second of the day, more than 2,250 miles of pipe deliver water throughout the Portland area. If you stretched those pipes end to end, you’d have to travel to Mexico City to catch a drop. How does it all work? Start here for the basics on the visible and invisible parts of our water system. About Portland's water system • Water from above and water from below • Water's journey from the source to your tap • Working for water • Contact • Related • Topics • Recent news The Portland Water Bureau began constructing our water system in 1893, and it has only grown larger and more complex since then. Today, our water system delivers over 30 billion gallons of high-quality water each year to about 1 million people in Portland and the surrounding areas. On average, we deliver enough water to fill up 144 Olympic-size swimming pools every day! (That’s 95 million gallons, for those keeping track at home.) Serving that much water takes more than 2,250 miles of pipes, nearly 15,000 hydrants, 54 tanks and covered reservoirs, 36 pump stations, around 60,000 valves, 193,000 water meters, and more than 600 employees. Since many parts of our water system are very old, we complete thousands of projects each year to replace outdated components. That keeps us busy around the clock as we operate, maintain, and improve our water system so we can continue to move high-quality drinking water from our water sources to taps throughout the Portland area. Our drinking water comes from two excellent sources, which we carefully monitor and protect. These two special water sources work together to keep Portland-area residents supplied with delicious, high-quality drinking water. Most of your tap water begins as rainfall in the Bull Run Watershed, located about 30 miles east of Portland in Mount Hood National Forest. The Bull Run is a lush temperate rainforest, home to numerous plants and animals and an abundance of water. Thanks to decades of hard work and advocacy by city residents and [Google Places type: city park]