Drinking-Water Protection Plan
The CRWP has developed a Drinking Water Protection Plan for the Clackamas River to provide its members with a long-term source water protection strategy. This plan was updated in 2021 to reflect changes since the plan was orginally written in 2010. We have three primary goals for achieving source water protection in the Clackamas watershed.
They are to:
1. Identify, prevent, minimize and mitigate activities that have known or potentially harmful impacts on drinking water quality so that the Clackamas River can be preserved as a high-quality drinking water source to meet the needs of an increasing human population into the future;
2 Identify climate mitigation and adaption strategies that will help ensure a more resilient watershed and drinking water source.
3. Promote public awareness and stewardship of healthy watershed ecology in collaboration with other stakeholders.
To achieve these goals the CRWP will need to be an active participant in the watershed and promote activities that reduce potential contaminants including nutrients, bacteria, pesticides, VOC’s, PCP’s, fine sediments, and other byproducts associated with urban, agricultural, forest, land development, and road uses that could impact the quality of the treated drinking water. To accomplish these goals and objectives the CRWP will need to:
- Take a leadership role in the protection of the Clackamas River.
- Promote the CRWP’s mission of interagency water provider cooperation through the implementation of source water protection mitigation strategies and programs.
- Seek and develop partnerships with agencies, landowners, stakeholders, academia to solicit feedback and to identify opportunities to develop long-term relationships so that water quality objectives, data and information can be shared.
- Collaborate with partners/stakeholders to maximize opportunities to develop and implement long-term solutions for the protection of drinking water supplies as well as the enhancement of water quality for fish and wildlife.
- Conduct additional sub-basin analysis through studies, GIS analysis, pollution load modeling, and water quality monitoring to help prioritize or reprioritize BMPs and mitigation strategies.
- Promote public education, awareness and cooperation in the watershed that supports voluntary watershed protection activities.
- Provide funding and resources to implement mitigation strategies and programs recognizing that grants and other outside resources will also be needed.
- Investigate methods to meet future water supply needs for people, through moving water around between providers, looking at alternative water sources, or more aggressive water conservation, while maintaining stream flows for fish and wildlife.
- Identify high-quality lands which contribute to improved water quality and preserve their function.
Click on the links below to see the CRWP Drinking Water Protection Plan.
- Get involved! Attend a Clackamas River Water Providers, city council or water board meeting.
- Call your water provider for more information.
- Join our local watershed council the Clackamas River Basin Council visit www.clackamasriver.org
- Conserve water, especially in the summer months when river flows are at their lowest. The more water we save during the summer months the more water we can keep in the river for fish.
- Protect our watershed by not dumping oil and other hazardous waste where it can enter storm drains.
- For more ideas on how you can prevent pollution from entering our waterways click here.
- Learn how to prevent pesticides from getting into our water.
Protecting our water source helps us maintain high-quality water which reduces the costs of drinking water treatment – thus reducing water bills, and helping to protect public health while being good stewards of the Clackamas River.
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Watershed Protection
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