Related News
Related News
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The Big Freeze 2024: After Action Report
Winter 2024 was one for the records books, and we'll look back on it for years to come and say, "That was a doozy!" The back-to-back January Ice Storms caused widespread damage to EWEB’s service territory, affecting approximately 38,000 customers. Preliminary repair costs were over $8 million, and additional repairs to transmission lines are still required.
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Fixing the Unseen: Water Pipeline Replacement in Unincorporated Eugene
Learn more about EWEB's methods for monitoring and replacing aged water pipelines.
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New tanks come online as EWEB modernizes water system
New drinking water storage tanks are one of several investments to ensure that EWEB can meet critical community needs in the event of an earthquake.
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Spring Cleaning? How about Spring Emergency Preparedness!
Spring is officially here and that means the plants are blooming, the sun is (sometimes) shining, and the grass is green! We've had our fair share of severe weather already, but spring weather is notoriously unpredictable. While you're in the midst of spring cleaning and garden care, consider completing these emergency preparedness tasks.
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State of the McKenzie Watershed
EWEB’s Drinking Water Source Protection (DWSP) team says the McKenzie River continues to be an excellent source for drinking water.
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Nine days without power: My ice storm story as an EWEB customer and employee
While beautiful and peaceful, buying a home on the edge of the forest and surrounded by trees has its tradeoffs. Moving “upriver,” I knew there would be more threats to prepare for, including Mother Nature’s seasonal surprises.
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Preparation and Resilience: How EWEB Maintained Water Service During Recent Ice Storm
Learn about the projects and people that helped EWEB keep water flowing throughout the extreme weather event.
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EWEB crews focusing on restoring electric service for Hayden Bridge Water Filtration Plant
With more ice forecasted for Tuesday, all EWEB crews are in the field assessing outages and restoring power.
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Let's talk turkey. If a disaster strikes, is your family ready?
Many of us avoid discussing politics over the dinner table in the spirit of family peace and harmony. But here's a topic that can bring everyone together: emergency preparedness.
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Your EWEB Rates at Work: Investing Today for a Resilient Tomorrow
For more than a century, EWEB has planned, built, and maintained the systems that deliver safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible power and water to Eugene homes and businesses.
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EWEB’s water infrastructure projects designed for reliability during major disasters
As communities nationwide Imagine a Day Without Water, EWEB strives to ensure such a day never happens.
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Fall is the perfect time to prepare for winter storm season
Winter is coming, which increases the likelihood of storm-related power outages. It's important to be prepared, and there are simple actions you can take right now.
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EWEB lead annual "Spill Drill"
EWEB coordinates drill as part of protecting Eugene’s drinking water
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Salmon Return to Finn Rock Reach
Finn Rock Reach and other restoration projects throughout the Middle McKenzie provide conditions to help young fish survive to adulthood.
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EWEB programs reflect community values
EWEB is here to serve our customer-owners and provides programs that reflect the values of our community.
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Enhanced Monitoring Key to a Healthy Watershed
February 11, 2021
On the heels of the Holiday Farm Fire, we quickly got to work with partner agencies and research organizations to identify post-fire threats to water quality in the McKenzie River. Additional water quality sensors have been placed in the main stem of the river, as well as in several creeks and tributaries. The widespread damage from the fire will likely threaten water quality for years, and these sensors are essential tools to the on-going recovery effort.
Real-time monitoring, especially during major storm events, provides important data about the location, amount, and types of contaminants flushed into the river. This information can act as an early warning system to adjust treatment practices at EWEB's filtration plant downstream and help prioritize watershed restoration activities. Learn more about watershed monitoring.
During the past few heavy rain events, monitors detected turbidity levels that were significantly higher than typical for the McKenzie River—a result of sediment from the surrounding land washing into the river. Analytical results from the expanded real-time monitoring network also showed an increase in nutrients, metals, and organic compounds coming from the burned and eroded landscape above the river.
Fortunately, these impacts seem to be short-lived and the water quality issues experienced so far are well within the capacity of EWEB's treatment plant to handle. Read more about your drinking water quality.
Protecting water quality requires a "source to tap" mentality, not simply relying on treatment measures to mitigate problems. The Holiday Farm Fire disaster presents an opportunity to rebuild smarter and strategically scale up source protection activities with an eye towards a more resilient watershed.
EWEB and our partners are looking for opportunities to implement large-scale floodplain restoration in key areas to mitigate flooding, erosion, and water quality impacts from severely burned landscapes. We also hope to work with area residents to replant some 100 acres of high priority riparian areas this winter.
If you are a landowner in the fire area and would like a site assessment from one of our team members, please visit the Pure Water Partners website.
Learn more about watershed restoration activities and protecting our water supply.