What would become of the reservoirs if they were disconnected from Portland’s water system, and Parks & Recreation assumed responsibility for them? It’s too early to speculate, says Jim Blackwood, policy director for Parks Commissioner Nick Fish and a member of the board of the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association. Among the ideas for future uses of the reservoirs are skate park, community gardens, wetlands, wading pool. Any of these would cost money, of course, and financially strapped Parks & Recreation has little money to spare.

FOR wants the City to push much harder for an administrative "variance" to save the open reservoirs while CPW  believes Congressional action is needed to maintain the reservoirs as they are. FOR also backs a legislative remedy and notes that Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., has shown support for retention of the open reservoirs.

Portland, advocates say, should follow the example of New York City, which spent more than a year compiling 161 pages of data to support the retention of the large Hillview Open Reservoir in suburban Yonkers. "Unfortunately, during that same period of time the Portland Water Bureau focused a majority of its resources on developing and implementing fast-tracked reservoir burial projects, doing so without any public involvement," FOR said in a January 17 letter to city officials. Portland has sent the EPA a single letter, "less than two pages long, only two paragraphs of which were dedicated to the reservoir variance discussion," says Stephanie Stewart, co-chair of the land use committee of the Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association. "They went into this not really trying to win."

"Whether New York’s chances (of gaining a variance) are better or worse than ours no one knows for certain," Stewart says, but at least they are trying."

At issue is the LT2 rule issued four years ago by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It requires the City to bury or cover the five open reservoirs. In response, the Portland City Council has tentatively agreed to disconnect the three Mount Tabor reservoirs by 2015 and the two in Washington Park by 2020. Work is underway at Powell Butte on one of the two underground storage tanks planned to replace the reservoirs. The rule also requires that water from the Bull Run Reservoir be filtered, and the City is running tests it hopes can persuade the EPA to exempt it from the requirement to build a $100 million treatment plant.

In a December 16 letter, the EPA apparently ruled out using an administrative variance to allow Portland to keep the open reservoirs, and the City seems prepared to yield on the section of the rule mandating the burial or covering of the open reservoirs. "The EPA has closed the door and they have closed it hard," said Water Bureau Administrator David Staff.

Advocates differ.

"Given the extensive scientific data in support of retaining Portland's open reservoirs, the broad-based community support for retaining our open reservoirs, the exorbitant cost of burial ($403 million, $800 million with debt service) and the new public health risks associated with covered reservoirs, it is incumbent on the City to push back and push back hard," FOR urged in its letter.