People who have lived in Portland for many winters have probably endured an ice storm or silver thaw. The Water Bureau's blog recently has reminded people to take care of pipes during winter weather , recorded the effect of winter cold on reservoir cleaning and work out of Sandy River Station and Headworks.

 

Today Operations staff, due to the increasingly cold weather in the 20s and teens, have turned off all the city's drinking fountains to prevent hazards from blowing water freezing on city sidewalks and streets. These images from Versoix, Switzerland are dramatic examples of ice hazards -- and why blowing water is a problem with a peculiar beauty all its own.

 

The call center staff of the Portland Utilities Customer Services report that calls are starting to come in about freezing pipes.

 

It's 18 degrees today at Sandy River Station, the bureau's maintenance facilty for the Bull Run Watershed. Headworks Treatment Operator Leonard Custis reports that today's temperature is 30 degrees with a very strong wind at the weather station just inside Bull Run.

 

Tricia Knoll

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