Infrastructure for Drinking Water

How much fresh water does Bridlemile use per day?

to

Bridlemile uses ~443,000 to ~554,000 gallons per day.

And how was the above estimate made?

The average US person uses 80 to 100 gallons per day (Source: USGS ).

Bridlemile has 5,537 residents (2020 US census), so that would be:

Low: 80 gallons / day * 5,537 residents = 442,960 gallons = 443K gallons / day

or

High: 100 gallons / day * 5,537 residents = 553,700 gallons / day = ~554K gallons / day.

Where does Bridlemile drinking water come from?

When you turn on a faucet to fill a cup of water… the water comes from a pipe that connects your home plumbing system with a street-side water meter. You (or whomever owns your home) is responsible for maintaining the pipes in the house and to the meter.

The water meter, in turn, is connected to a large network of water pipes that run under Bridlemile (and Portland) streets. The Portland Water Bureau is responsible for maintaining the pipes from each house’s meter to Bull Run.

Water pressure drives water through pipes to Bridlemile residences. Pumps and gravity drive the water pressure. Gravity-fed pressure comes from water tanks located at higher elevations. The Council Crest water storage tank sits at an elevation of over 1,000 feet while Bridlemile has an average elevation of 489 feet (246 feet min). (Portland has 70 hill-top storage tanks throughout the city.)

West-side tanks like the one at Council Crest, in turn, get water from a much larger (12.4 million gallon) reservoir in Washington Park, next to the International Rose Garden. This site provides drinking water for the westside. (Portland has five such reservoirs throughout the city.)

A pipe that goes under the Willamette River connects the Washington Park reservoir with the city’s main reservoir at Powell Butte Nature Park on Portland’s east side.

Powell Butte, in turn, gets water, by pipes and with the help of dams, primarily from the Bull Run Watershed. The Bull Run Watershed consists of 102 square miles on the western side of Mount Hood, about 35 miles east of Portland. The water is about 3,000 feet above sea level. It is collected in three lakes and using two dams. It rains there up to 130 inches per year. Water for this rain typically comes from the Pacific Ocean.

In case of problems with Bull Run, Portland has a backup water source at the Columbia South Shore Well Field. The Well Field can provide around 65 to 95 million gallons of water per day.

Purification occurs downstream from Bull Run and the Well Field.

To report an issue with your drinking water, go to: https://www.portland.gov/water/report-water-quality-issues