Public Health - Clean Water Services

Leave it to Beavers

There’s a lot we already know about nature’s engineers. Beavers have iron-enriched teeth, which is what makes them strong enough to gnaw wood (and gives them an orange color). Beavers also have a unique way of communicating — by slapping their tails to draw attention to something or even warn of potential danger.

Rain to Drain to River

Your actions, no matter how small, can impact the life cycle of the salmon, and the overall health of the watershed.

‘Wastewater Olympics’ Boosts Essential Services Skills

It’s been called the Wastewater Olympics, the Sewage Superbowl, and one of the best professional development programs in the water sector. The Operations Challenge exists because wrangling wastewater to protect our communities and environment requires well-trained professionals who can put their skills to work quickly, safely, and collaboratively.

Give Thanks for Your Toilet

Have you thought about what it would be like to live without toilets? According to the WHO and CDC, about 1.5 billion people don’t have access to safely managed sanitation in their home, and another 3.4 billion people don’t have access to safely managed sanitation anywhere — even outside of their home. Inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes, and soil — contaminating the water resources under our feet.

A white toilet against a blue tile wall.

Who’s Been Here? Using eDNA to Understand and Defend our Watershed

There are many different ways the watershed talks to us, if you know how to listen. At Clean Water Services (CWS), we are always working to understand the needs of the Tualatin River Watershed. One way we learn from the environment is asking “who or what has been here?” Since we can’t knock on the door of a beaver dam or ring a trout’s doorbell, CWS is using a new technique to translate the language of the watershed.

Clarified Vision: Planning and Building for Changing Communities and Climate

The pipes, pump stations, stormwater systems, and treatment facilities that protect the health of all of us who live and work in Washington County are able to serve our growing communities because of decades of planning. The systems that will meet our needs 20 years from now will arrive thanks to planning being done today.

Clean Water Services Water Resource Recovery Facility in Rock Creek, Oregon. Shown at dusk with bright lights illuminating a large clarifier on site.

Testing the Waters: Inside the CWS Water Quality Lab

There's a lot of science involved in treating wastewater and managing stormwater in the uniquely challenging Tualatin River Watershed. A sizable portion of that science takes place in the Clean Water Services Water Quality Laboratory, where chemists perform over 100,000 water quality analyses a year.