June 26, 2017

This morning Nick was proud to welcome Mayor Hales, Commissioner Novick, and Commissioner Fritz to celebrate the dedication of the Water Bureau’s Interstate Operations Maintenance Facility.

The Interstate Facility is an essential part of Portland’s drinking water system, from forest to faucet. Interstate houses more than 300 employees, a water control center, water quality laboratory, storage area, administration offices, and more.

Part of the facility is nearly 100 years old, so it lacks modern safety standards – and is known to “rain” inside the building on stormy days!

This morning, we celebrated the grand opening of a new 28,000 square foot office building, which came in on time and under budget. The no-frills building was built to LEED Gold standards, and its eco-friendly design conserves water and energy, and uses solar power. We anticipate saving almost 370,000 kilowatt hours of energy thanks to our green building standards. That’s the equivalent of burning about 194 tons of coal.

Members of the Portland Fire and Rescue’s Honor Guard helped celebrate the event. They raised the American flag and led the Pledge of Allegiance. 

The rest of the facility is set to be completed in early 2016. Check out the Water Bureau’s website for more information. 

Portland Water Bureau debuts sparkling new $50 million maintenance, operations buildings

Andrew Theen in The Oregonian