The original crypto scam


I see that the money pit known as the Portland Water Bureau has mismanaged the new filtration system project at the Bull Run reservoir to a price tag over $2 billion (with a "b") and climbing, with no end to the inflation in sight.

But don't worry, say the bureaucrats. We'll borrow the money, so your bill won't go up.

Uh huh.

Portland water and sewer bills are already obscenely high, and this boondoggle is going to make them worse, much worse. It's just a question of when.

And despite all the water weasels' warnings about how we're all going to die if they don't get the filters going – supposedly a parasite called cryptosporidium is coming to get us – the fact remains that Portland's drinking water is pretty fine as it is. The city is placing the blame for this ungodly expense on federal and state regulators, but those folks could grant exemptions and extensions if they wanted to. The city stopped asking for them.

The main point of this undertaking is, as it's always been, to make big profits for the contractors, with whom the water bureau types are way too cozy. A project this big, the technical details of which hardly anyone understands, being built where literally no one is allowed to go watch... well, it's a pretty open invitation to corruption, if you ask me. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody deliberately introduced crypto into the water up there just to seal the deal.

And don't forget who caved in to the feds and the state on this. It was the City Council. Steve Novick was the city water commissioner during a lot of that time; Admiral Randy handed the reins over to him. Novick is currently running to get back on the City Council in the inner southeast district. If I lived there, I'd put him down as my very, very last choice. He was so bad that he lost his last election to Chloe Eudaly, one of the worst Portland City Council members ever. The self-proclaimed genius should stay home and pet his dog.

Comments

  1. The city keeps saying "the feds are making us do this." But what if they don't do it. Do you really think Biden will fine the City of Portland? Do you think Trump gives a rip? Besides, any fines are gonna be way less than the $2 billion boondoggle.

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    1. Plus, where is Saint Wyden? It is a scam. S-C-A-M.

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  2. The sewer bureau financed the Big Pipe with bonds. They actually did some refinancing which lowered interest rates and the cost to users. However, we're now paying for this, as we have been for the 13 years since the BP was finished, and will be for at least 7 more years. It will be interesting to see if sewer rates go down when thise bonds are paid off. I'm guessing not. The good news - the sewer bonds were only one billion dollars.

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  3. The Portland Water Bureau has been running amok, expanding its tentacles, gouging & wasting money since the 1970’s. Go look at Dr. Joe Miller’s amazing Bull Run Advisory Group (BRAG) File archive at the Multnomah County Library. It’s all there. What a corrupt culture Portland city government is. And they keep getting worse.

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  4. The one way, I should really say the ONLY way that the water bureau can save face here is to announce a partnership with Metro and announce plans for a new streetcar route that terminates at the filtration facility.

    Honestly, don’t we all have the right to see where our money is going? To see the end results, to feel good about it, and to actually touch it? It would be a win/win for all. Just Do It!

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  5. New York got a variance because their gravity fed system does not mingle with agriculture waste, like what started this in the first place Wisconsin. Bull Run is the same as New York- no cows anywhere close to the water source. Beavers are not an issue cause their poop is not a big deal. This is all about making money by building more shit with the revolving door between the Water bureau and former employees running the engineering firm that gets all the contracts. Drip, drip, drip.

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  6. Boondoggles are all we have left, but there are more coming. Just wait 'til our water pressure drops because they try to tap the water pressure in the system for "clean energy".

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  7. Commercial logging companies’ loggers doing “salvage” logging & “forest resiliency” logging are the ones dumping their cryptosporidium into the riparian areas of the Bull Run Reserve.

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    1. Interesting assertion. Should be easy to prove.

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  8. Say what you will about some quality issues, if you’re in unincorporated Clark Co. on septic, the water bill is usually under $20/mo.

    Hard to ignore.

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