Each year, the Portland Water Bureau develops a Seasonal Water Supply Augmentation and Contingency Plan. This plan evaluates the availability of water from the Bull Run and groundwater sources, projected weather forecasts, and water demands to guide management of the drinking water system. Between careful management and the region’s strong conservation efforts, the Water Bureau is prepared to meet the range of potential supply and demand conditions that could occur in the Portland water system this season.

 October 22, 2020 Update: The recent rains have resulted in start of reservoir refill, resulting in 7 billion gallons of drinking water in the Bull Run Reservoirs. This refill ends the active supply management for the 2020 season.

The graph below shows the usable storage in the Bull Run reservoirs for 2020 (red) compared to the average level (green), and 2015 (yellow) and 2019 (blue), recent supply stressing summers.