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Portland Water Bureau officials aren’t turning off city fountains in Oregon’s drought emergency, and don’t anticipate needing to do so.
On July 7, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered state agencies to abstain from using water for nonessential uses such as fountains, sprinklers and window washing. The announcement came as 19 counties were in a declared drought emergency.
“Many local governments have also curtailed water use on city and county facilities. I appreciate their leadership and encourage all local governments in drought-stricken counties to conserve water and begin implementing drought resiliency strategies as we face a worsening drought together,” Brown said in a statement.
But Multnomah County, which contains Portland, isn’t one of those drought-stricken counties.
“We are not experiencing a water shortage in Portland, nor do we expect to this season,” said Jaymee Cuti, a spokeswoman for the Portland Water Bureau.
As nearby as Lane and Linn counties in the central Willamette Valley, drought has reached extreme levels—and parts of the state reeling from wildfires are both tinder-dry and seeing their water supplies run low.
Portland’s water supply, however, comes from the Bull Run Watershed in the alpine hills ringing Mount Hood, and flows into the Bull Run Reservoir and the underground Powell Butte reservoirs. None are running low. “Those reservoirs are looking really good right now,” Cuti says.
Cuti says she expects citizens to use water responsibly.
“Portlanders always have a really strong conservation ethic,” she added. “We’ll let them know if anything changes.”