Portland’s $2.1 billion water filtration project got the go-ahead from a state land use court — another victory for the city in a yearslong legal fight with nearby landowners.

Last year, a Multnomah County hearings officer ruled the 95-acre project could resume construction, following an appeal from landowners and land conservation groups.

Those groups — including the nonprofit 1000 Friends of Oregon and a rural fire protection district — appealed the county’s decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

On Friday, LUBA issued a final order affirming the county’s decision that the project complies with state land use laws.

“Oregonians and Oregon businesses — the ones who will foot the bill for this project — will suffer the consequences: rising water bills, fewer local farms and nurseries, and a damaged ecosystem,” 1000 Friends said in a statement.

A $387 million federal loan will cover part of the project. Ratepayers and water revenue bonds will foot the rest of the bill.

The city is building the filtration facility to protect nearly 1 million people from potentially drinking contaminated water, and to meet federal drinking water standards.

“This project is critical for public health and the regional economy, which depends on safe and reliable water,” the Portland Water Bureau said in a statement.

It’s unclear if the city will finish construction by September 2027, its deadline for meeting federal limitations on certain diarrhea-causing parasites. A Portland Water Bureau spokesperson said the city is going to release more details about where the project stands during a press conference next week.

This most recent decision from LUBA might not be the final chapter of this saga. Critics, who see the project as a loss of farmable land, still have some procedural moves they can take to further stall — or halt — the project.

Another chapter in a long history

Portland gets its water from the Bull Run Watershed, a protected area of the Mount Hood National Forest. For decades, the forest has provided water that is clean enough not to require filtration, so the city has only treated the water with chlorine before sending it through pipes to 1 million people in the Portland area.

Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created drinking water limits on cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that causes diarrhea. It usually enters water through feces, and in the Bull Run’s case, it is likely coming from wildlife poop.

Portland has regularly exceeded the federal cryptosporidium limits. But instead of opting for ultraviolet light to kill the parasite — similar to New York City — Portland has pursued a filtration plant.

It’s a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone approach, in that the filtration plant will not only protect Portland’s drinking water against fecal parasites, but also against the degraded water quality that wildfires in the area could cause.

Multnomah County approved Portland’s land use permit for the facility in 2023. Land conservation groups appealed that decision to LUBA, arguing the treatment facility would diminish the state’s inventory of farmable land and greenspace. The project broke ground during that appeals process in 2024.

In January 2025, LUBA issued a decision that sent the project back to Multnomah County. That stalled construction for six months. Then in June, the county reapproved the land use permit, and critics appealed part of that decision to LUBA a month later.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/13/portland-wins-bull-run-decision/