November 4th, 2009
University Of Oregon | Who’s killing Rudolph?5 comments
October 28th, 2009
Metro | A blowhard answer to global warming? 5 comments
October 21st, 2009
Michael Ruppert | Peak trouble for an Oregon author.23 comments
October 7th, 2009
Beaverton Police | Zero tolerance for video recorders.11 comments
September 30th, 2009
Lynn Peterson | C’mon, Dems. Are Kitzhaber and Bradbury that formidable?3 comments
September 23rd, 2009
Denny Doyle | Beaverton mayor hits a foul ball.3 comments
September 2nd, 2009
Oregon Bankers Association | For bailouts, then against them.6 comments
August 19th, 2009
Wal-Mart | Save money. Live worse.9 comments
August 12th, 2009
Rep. Earl Blumenauer | Phoning it in.15 comments
August 5th, 2009
Brenda Sturdevant | Offended by a miniskirt.3 comments
![]() IMAGE: damian zari |
[September 19th, 2007] WW’ s annual Hydro Hogs issue, where we spotlight the biggest residential water users in and around Portland, typically leaves us with few friends.
The water-wasters we name end up hating us. Our online readers accuse us of being socialists for writing the cover story. About the only buddies we have left are the folks at the Portland Water Bureau, who provide the data behind the story.
But the Rogue Desk has no friends. And we hereby serve notice to the Portland Water Bureau that we’re roguing them for wasting water—the very resource they urge customers to conserve.
After Hydro Hogs came out last week, the Rogue Desk got a call from Teresa Newton, a day-care provider and mother of three who lives at 7115 SE 36th Ave. After watching the Hydro Hogs story get picked up on KATU news, Newton says she was flabbergasted because a leak under the street in front of her home that she’d been reporting to the city since May still hadn’t been fixed more than three months later.
Newton says she and her neighbors have called the city at least 10 times since Memorial Day. “It has literally been running down the street,” Newton says. “They have completely, straight-up ignored it.”
We drove to Newton’s house, and sure enough, a steady seep was forming a stream. We estimated 16 ounces was being lost every minute, or 180 gallons a day—more than the average non-Hydro Hogs Portland household uses each day. Reached by the Rogue Desk on Sept. 17, Water Bureau spokeswoman Tricia Knoll said the city had a record of one complaint on June 12, but it somehow got lost. She sent a crew immediately to fix the leak.
“We apologize to the neighbors out there,” Knoll said. “Normally we’re fast.”
City crews arrived that day but didn’t finish the repairs. The next morning, Newton said 11 city employees in six city trucks had returned and finally fixed the leak. “I couldn’t run my business this way and make money,” Newton said.
RECENT COMMENTS ON “Portland Water Bureau”
Portlanders, will you never wake up??? You who love government sooo much (government can do no wrong, right?) are getting your wish--bigger government. When the city was busted a few years ago for sle...
WW deserves a place in Portland. But there's also room for a local paper written by younger (under 30 ) professionals, the people who are crafting Portland business sense today !
If you guys never pick up the W Week, how would you know what was in it to complain about?
Mr. Waterhouse,
Perhaps that explains why you're newspaper is trying so hard to get the non-story. Teach the kids on your staff to do a little fact checking please. At the very leas...











