West Linn Water Treatment Plant Construction Complete

LAKE OSWEGO, OR — After nearly a decade of development and construction, the final touches are being put on the new water treatment plant in West Linn.

From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership hosted an informal ribbon cutting/community thank you event at the also-new two-acre park located on the Southside of the treatment plant. The event included tours of the new facility, a barbecue, and fun games and giveaways for kids, according to Citizen Information Specialist Katy Kerklaan.

Construction on the massive $254 million project began in May 2013, Kerklaan told Patch Thursday. Since then, six major phases saw pipeline improvements, seismic upgrades, and the construction and an all new water treatment plant between the Clackamas River intake at Oregon City to just west of Interstate-5 in Tigard.

At the nine-acre water treatment plant site in West Linn, more than 1,000 yards of soil, 600 yards of mulch, hundreds of trees and 20,000 native shrubs and plants were used to transform the area into an entirely different industrial green space amongst the residential area between Mapleton Drive and Kenthorpe Way. In fact, as part of the treatment plant's construction, the partnership also created walking path connecting the two streets, as well as the previously mentioned two-acre park site on the Mapleton side and a rain garden on the Kenthorpe side. (The two-acre park area will be seeded this fall, Kerklaan said.)

The new water pipeline and treatment plant will supply residents in Lake Oswego, Tigard, Durham, and King City, as well as some unincorporated parts of southern Washington County, with 38 million gallons of water per day. The previous water infrastructure was only capable of supplying 16 million gallons per day, Kerklaan said, which began causing serious supply issues as the area's population increased over the past several decades.

The original infrastructure was created in 1968, Kerklaan said.

The new pipeline infrastructure has provided water to Tigard and surrounding water consumers since July 2016, though the advanced treatment processes needed to finalize the project were only recently completed.

Top Photo: Water treatment plant in West Linn, taken during the final stages of construction, Fall 2016. Courtesy: Katy Kerklaan, Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership