CWS News Stories Articles - Clean Water Services

Native Plants: Get to the Root of their Beauty and Benefits

At Clean Water Services, our favorite plants are native plants. Local birds, bees, and butterflies agree. Native plants are vitally important to protecting and supporting a healthy watershed. They are adapted to our climate, soils, and ecosystems.

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.

Clean Water Services Seeks Applicants for Advisory Commission

Clean Water Services’ Board of Directors is seeking applicants to serve four-year terms on its Clean Water Services Advisory Commission (CWAC).

Two men talk at a wastewater treatment plant

Water Releases Make Tualatin River a Year-Round Resource

The arrival of warm and dry weather and a hot forecast ahead prompted Clean Water Services to begin releasing cool water on May 31, 2023.

An aerial view of where water is released from Scoggins Dam. Part of Hagg Lake is visible on the left, with trees and hills in the background.

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.