What's in our water?

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland's water supply is known for being clean and safe but the Environmental Protection Agency is forcing the city to change the way it treats its water to meet federal regulations. 

The city allows the majority of its drinking water to sit in uncovered reservoirs where things like beer bottles, tennis balls, paint and bird feces end up.  Over the summer, a young couple was even caught skinny dipping in one of them.

And believe it or not, there is nothing that stands between the water in the reservoirs and the tap water in your sink.  There are no filters.

Federal regulators want the reservoirs covered but the city decided years ago not to do that after neighbors objected.

But now, a federal appeals court has ruled against Portland.  That means the city has to have a plan before next April to either cover the reservoirs or treat the water - at a cost of $200 to $400 million.

The solution may be a place like the 25 million gallon underground storage tank on Powell Butte.  The city is planning on building another one in the hopes of complying with federal regulations. The plan would take open reservoirs offline and turn them into parks.

As vulnerable as the water supply is, in the past 10 years testing has never found unacceptable levels of things like cryptosporidium, which can make you sick.

But it's not what's in the water now - it's what someone could put in the water in the future.

The city has six years to comply with the new federal regulations. 

The Water Bureau imposed a two percent rate increase this year to help pay the bill to build new reservoirs but it's not clear where the rest of the money will come from.