Sandy’s Drinking Water Project is Underway

By Abby Haney, The Sandy Standard

For a couple years, the City of Sandy has been actively working to improve citizens’ drinking water, mainly supported by the magnitude of water available. As the city grows, demand for water increases, and puts risk on the Alder Creek Water Treatment Plant, Sandy’s main source of drinking water. With the new upgrades, supply will increase to meet the growing demand. 

The Alder Creek Plant hasn’t experienced renovations in years, limiting its abilities to run at full capacity. The City of Sandy is improving the plant by upgrading new filters which will not only produce better water, but more water. Half of the filters were out of commission but renovation has already begun and is expected to be completed by spring or summer of 2027. 

“Half of them [filters] were out of commission and had been for a while, so the capacity of the plant to produce water was nowhere near what it needed to be,” Deputy City Manager Jeff Aprati said. 

Currently, the Alder Creek Plant produces less than a million gallons per day (MGD) than its max, which is around 2.4 MGD, so renovations are necessary. However, since that doesn’t meet Sandy’s water demand, other sources are necessary. Brownell Springs is another source but is limited. Bull Run fills the missing quota. 

“Alder Creek is our main water source. Our connection to Bull Run is the backup supplement, and it’s more expensive,”  Aprati said. Fully switching to reliance on the Bull Run was more expensive; renovating Alder Creek was a better solution in the long run. 

In the winter, Sandy’s demand is around 1.33 MGD, but when the heat begins in the summer, this demand increases to around 2.59 MGD. The Bull Run source can support this higher demand. 

“Demand for water really changed in the winter versus the summer. So in the summer, Alder Creek isn’t enough – we need another water source,”  Aprati said. 

The water from Bull Run is sourced through Portland Water Bureau (PWB). This includes other water sources as well, such as the Columbia River. With the new federal mandate for water being treated for cryptosporidium, PWB has to build a filtration facility, because currently, they have no way of filtering cryptosporidium. In order to reach the plant, Sandy has to build a pipeline that will connect  the two, a process already started. The pipeline connecting to the filtration will be completed this spring, and re-paving Bluff Road will happen afterwards. 

“We need more water in the summer but we also want to have emergency resilience,”  Aprati said. The extra water not only is for the peak demand, but for emergencies. If damage occurred to a watershed, like in Bull Run a couple years ago, the connection to PWB would fill the gap during the emergency. 

“If Alder was out of commission for a while because of a fire or some other emergency, we don’t want to be in a position where we don’t have any other access to water,”  Aprati said. “The access to Bull Run water provides us with that emergency backup.” 

Sandy is aware of their vulnerability and is prepared for it by building its backups through PWB. With concerns of fire season this year also, the city is preparing for any scenario. 

“There’s danger that this could be a rough fire season because of how the winter went so it’s definitely on our minds,” Aprati said. 

In order to complete the project, Sandy needs to build a new pump station next to the PWB filtration facility. Due to land disputes, this was delayed. The expected completion date is unknown. 

“The reason the last piece got delayed was because there was a whole land use dispute about their new facility –  so we weren’t able to do any of that until that was resolved,”  Aprati said. 

Another step towards finishing the drinking water project is finishing the dechloramination site, wherein disinfectant used to treat water and match it to existing water. The dechloramination site is expected to be completed in Winter of 2026 or 2027. 

The projects are expensive, but Sandy citizens' payment through utility rates isn’t as significant as predicted. The city has been able to obtain grants and other resources to combat the expense and reduce the expected utility rise. 

The drinking water project Sandy has launched is supporting citizens by providing back-up water for any scenario. Additional water sources are important not only for the peak demand in the summer, but for emergency scenarios that may arise. With the new upgrades, the city is prepared for disasters and ability to meet the growing supply in Sandy.