Read the Portland Water Bureau's Strategic Plan. 

The plan is also available in screen-reader accessible large print.  

When we began to strategize about the next five years, we hoped to create a plan that was adaptable, durable, and more than just another document on a shelf.

After a two-year collaborative effort at all levels of the bureau and in consultation with community leaders, we’ve arrived on a clear set of priorities that guide our work.

In this plan, we propose strategies about a range of pressing issues, including water service affordability, climate change impacts to the water system, workforce and service equity, regional emergency preparedness and resilience, and the bureau’s community relationships.

A Risk-Based Approach

This plan is uniquely ours. The staff of the Water Bureau created a risk-based plan that considered the full spectrum of our operations from fixing main breaks, to protecting our watershed, to taking care of our staff and including equity in every aspect of our work.

This excellent document is the result of a thorough, two-year process we can be justifiably proud of. I am.

Over my 40-year career, I have seen many plans come and go. For the most part, they have been written by small groups of people and served narrow purposes. Then they were put on a shelf and collected dust. That’s not how we created this plan and that’s not how it’s going to be used.

It is our intention that this plan becomes our way of doing business and informs not just what, but how we do our work.

Looking Ahead

This plan is not going to languish on a shelf. This marks the beginning of a new challenge for all of us—implementing the plan.

We will be communicating here over the next few months to describe the implementation process and how you, our community, can track our progress.

Thank you to our Portland community for your contributions to this achievement!

Michael Stuhr, PE
Administrator
Portland Water Bureau