Water Storage Improvement Projects
Access to clean water is vital to our community.
EWEB is hard at work making sure safe, reliable water continues to flow even as critical infrastructure ages and new challenges arise. In the next decade, we plan to construct new water storage facilities near 40th Ave. and Donald St. and replace the water storage systems at EWEB's College Hill and Hawkins Hill sites. The projects will be built to seismic and contemporary operating standards, providing more than 40 million gallons of resilient, safe water storage.
Dear East 40th Neighbors,
We have expanded our email list of adjacent neighbors to include an additional 20+ households in the vicinity of the project site. If this is the first time you have received a project update email, please know that you can view all previous neighbor emails on our project website (click "Read Previous Updates and Announcements"), or contact the project team for more information.

If you want to be removed from this email list, simply click the "Unsubscribe" link below.
You may be wondering why there has been no construction activity on-site since early yesterday afternoon.

On August 2, the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) received a notice of intent to appeal the erosion prevention permit that was issued by the City on July 30, 2021. Later that day, EWEB received an interim stay issued by LUBA which temporarily halts work while LUBA reviews the merits of the appeal.

We want to assure neighbors that we have adhered to all land use requirements. We are coordinating with our legal counsel to work through the LUBA process so that we can resume work on this project to provide secure, reliable water storage.

Tree removal work is nearly complete, but we will not be able to remove the downed wood until we are cleared by LUBA to resume work. 

We are unsure how long the stay will be in place. However, the LUBA order requires responses to be submitted by Monday, Aug. 9. We will share more information as it becomes available.

In the meantime, you may see some limited activity on the site unrelated to tree work. For example, the contractor will be installing more rock for erosion prevention in anticipation of rain in the forecast, and we will be making some repairs to an area of fencing that was damaged.
Contact us with questions
If you have questions or input, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the project team at
541-685-7899 or water.storage@eweb.org. Emails sent to this address will reach:

  • Laura Farthing, Project Manager/Senior Civil Engineer
  • Jen Connors, Communications Supervisor
  • Jeannine Parisi, Customer Relationship Manager
  • Wally McCullough, Water Engineering Supervisor