Add Pier Pool to the Long List of Portland Parks Repairs

Just as Portland barrels into summer heat, Portland Parks & Recreation has closed Pier Pool in North Portland due to a significant failure in a water line.

The parks bureau said that water levels began rapidly dropping in the pool on Thursday and efforts to refill the pool were ineffective. Further inspection indicated the issue was a broken pipe in the circulation system. Little wonder: The PP&R statement adds that “a large portion of Pier Pool’s inner mechanical workings are original parts dating from as far back as 1940.”

The failure by aged equipment is a pointed example of a problem endemic across the Portland park system. PP&R has identified more than $600 million in major repairs that are needed across the parks system but has no current way to actually fund the repairs. As WW has previously reported, that’s a symptom of the City Council’s choice to expand the parks system while lacking the money to maintain its existing properties. The gap between what the bureau needs to fix and what it can afford to fix is now $600 million.

Because of the lack of funding, the bureau predicts “one in five PP&R assets will fail in the next 15 years.”

The city has pledged to build a new $50 million aquatic center in North Portland to replace the decrepit Columbia Pool, using city and state dollars. Now another pool in the same quadrant is offline.

For how long? The parks bureau can’t say. “PP&R will be working with contractors to determine the nature of the needed work, which will involve digging under the concrete pool deck, doing the plumbing work, and replacing the concrete surfacing,” the bureau said in a statement Friday.

But summer swim lessons will not be canceled. All swim lessons, swim team practices, and Pier Pool staff will move to the Peninsula Pool—a little over 6 miles away—until repairs can be made.