Protecting Our Most Valuable Resource
For over 45 years, the Joint Water Commission (JWC) has been the primary drinking water supplier in Washington County, Oregon. Currently, the JWC is responsible for treating, transmitting, and storing potable water for over 400,000 customers.
Four agencies share ownership in the JWC: the Cities of Hillsboro, Forest Grove, and Beaverton, and the Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD). The JWC also wholesales water to the City of North Plains.
The JWC Water Treatment Plant is the largest conventional treatment plant in Oregon and produces drinking water of exceptionally high-quality. The drinking water continues to meet and exceed all minimum compliance standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safe Drinking Water Act.
Built in 1976 by Hillsboro and Forest Grove, the original plant could treat up to 21.3 Million Gallons per Day (MGD). It has been expanded through the years to accommodate the addition of Beaverton and TVWD, as well as population growth. The plant can now treat up to 85 MGD.
After obtaining water from the upper Tualatin through the Spring Hill Intake, it is then treated at the JWC Water Treatment Plant in Forest Grove. Treatment at the plant consists of conventional media filtration with coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation processes prior to filtration. After treatment, the finished water is pumped via high pressure transmission lines directly to Forest Grove’s, Beaverton’s, TVWD’s or Hillsboro’s distribution systems, or to the Fernhill Reservoirs. Finished water is stored in the Fernhill Reservoirs, where two 20-million gallon (MG) concrete reservoirs are located on a hill approximately one-third mile east of the JWC plant. The first reservoir has been in operation since 1983, and the second came online in 2006.
The JWC remains committed to source water protection, continued risk assessment, and water management and conservation measures:
The JWC has developed a source water protection plan to maintain, safeguard, and sustain the supply and protect the quality of water in the Tualatin River.
The JWC works in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to identify risks to the drinking water supply and implement protecting strategies.
JWC partners have implemented a myriad of water management and conservation measures in an effort to be a leader among water providers in efficient and effective water management and conservation.
As a Tree for All partner, the JWC also offers a Source Water Protection Grant Program, which supports the efforts of local organizations to maintain and safeguard the quality of water entering the JWC Water Treatment Plant, promote stakeholder partnerships, and increase public awareness of tap water.
