Benefits to the Lake Oswego Community

The new facility would provide Lake Oswego with the opportunity to benefit the community as a whole. Foothills Water’s design for the new wastewater treatment facility takes up less land and frees up 10+ acres for the rest of the community for parks, riverfront, new development, and community assets. The existing facility resides on an underutilized riverfront area close to downtown Lake Oswego. By building the new, smaller facility in a different location, the potential of the riverfront area is unlocked. It would release significantly higher water quality into the Willamette River, managed wet weather flows caused by climate change, and produce recycled water for future reuse. The new facility would be outside of the 500-year floodplain, increase resilience with new technologies and energy-efficient systems, and provides the City with the opportunity to reduce its carbon footprint via alternative energy and power via microgrid power/renewables.

Benefits to the Environment

Addressing today’s environmental and societal challenges is an important responsibility that requires long-term commitments and innovative solutions to deliver successful outcomes. Our intention to deliver and operate a new, state-of-the-art facility that assumes the risk for 30 years, epitomizes a long-term commitment. Our proactive and results-oriented approach uses innovative sustainability-focused solutions to reduce operating risks, improve resiliency, and increase success in a rapidly changing world. Additionally, we believe our proposed design is fit for the purpose and well-aligned with the City of Lake Oswego Council’s overarching goals for the future, including combating climate change and reducing GHG emissions. Due to the innovative design of the new facility, it will be constructed outside of the 500-year floodplain, designed to meet current seismic resiliency standards, and will produce significantly improved water quality for future reuse, all for the benefit of the environment and the Willamette River.