Clean Water News & Stories

Septic or Sewer? Keeping the Watershed Free of Sewage

When you flush your toilet, everything in the bowl should (hopefully) be sent away from your bathroom and your home. For many people in Washington County, those contents head to a water resource recovery facility operated by Clean Water Services. For others, it is held in a septic tank.

Public Works: Connecting Communities Worldwide 

How often do you consider where water (and everything you flush along with it) goes after you “go,” or where it flows when it falls as rain, melts as snow, or runs down your driveway from a hose?
Workers fill a trench in the street where pipe work was completed. A piece of heavy machinery, houses, and cars are in the background.

Practical, Proactive, People-Centered: Our Blessedly Boring Budget 

Drama and excitement can be fun, but not when it comes to budget and rates planning. You want to know the folks tasked with tackling our region’s long-term water challenges are being as clear-eyed and careful with your hard-earned rate dollars as they are when protecting public health and the environment. 
An Aerial view of Butternut Creek, a tributary to the Tualatin River, with heavy vegetation along the banks of the creek and houses backing up to the water.

From Unthinkable to Almost Drinkable

Do you wonder what happens to that water after you send it down the drain? Eventually, Washington County’s water ends up back in the Tualatin River, but it goes through quite a process to get there. 
A group of people on the catwalk above a primary clarifier at A CWS Water Resource Recovery Facility.