Wells and water pumps resemble homes in Beaverton

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — The most expensive house on Southwest Hanson Street in Beaverton is also the most modest in the neighborhood.

The small, single-story home on the corner cost $1.3 million and it has no bedrooms or bathrooms. Down the street, a two-story home with four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms sold for $415,000 in April.

The little house, with nicely kept lawn and cedar shakes, is a facade built by the city of Beaverton. It has a giant pump sitting in the living room and an array of electronic controls in the dining room. The pump pulls water from an underground aquifer to help keep residents hydrated.

The facade is so realistic, city workers often find phone books on the porch and pizza coupons stuck to the door.

"Most people don't know it's here," Brion Barnett, project engineer for Beaverton public works department, said of the pump house.

The city has three such wells within 300-feet of each other, but the need to camouflage the pumps with houses instead of concrete-block square buildings, is relatively new. The house on Hanson Street, in Sexton Mountain, was built in 2007. The two other wells predated the subdivision and didn't require a fancy facade.

As developments rise, the city is drilling in existing subdivisions where homeowner associations (HOA) rule, and it has to meet the same standards as other homeowners, Barnett said. Another house will cover a well and pump near Scholls Heights Elementary and yet another currently being drilled near Southwest Nora Road in South Cooper Mountain. Beaverton already pays HOA fees on Hanson Street and will pay them for the other sites as well.

These are the most efficient locations for the wells, Barnett said of the sites. They're close to high-production aquifers and the city's main water pipes.

"It's location, location, location," Barnett said.

Not only does the city draw water from the wells, it also injects water into them for future use. Beaverton, specifically Sexton Mountain, sits on a type of rock (basalt) that allows for water to pool underground, called aquifers. They're natural occurrences and Beaverton has taken advantage of them by diverting a portion of the water it receives from the Tualatin River to the underground water banks.

The aquifer storage was created so the city could delay its need for additional water sources as the city grows. It also comes in handy during a drought.

Beaverton isn't in a drought, although much of Oregon is right now, but it's definitely a dry year for the area. The city gets 16 million gallons a day from the Tualatin River. Once the river reaches a certain level, however, the city loses that source and draws, instead, from Scoggins Dam and Barney Reservoir usually in June or July. This year, the river reached the cut off level on May 8, said Dave Winship, principal engineer, public works department.

If a drought or some other emergency cut off Beaverton's natural water sources, the city could dip into its 700 million gallons of ground-stored water to provide for Beavertonians for about half a year at 5 million gallons a day, Winship said.

Average water use for Beaverton is between 6-7 million gallons a day, he said. During the summer, however, Beaverton water usage has peaked around 17 million gallons a day.

Currently, the city uses the aquifer water to supplement those other sources after it loses the Tualatin River.

"By the end of summer, we'll have drawn down a couple of hundred feet (of the Hanson Street aquifer)," said Tim Tilander, city water quality lead, during a tour of the Hanson Street pump house.

At the moment, the city is in the process of drilling its newest well, which is in the most luxurious neighborhood, so far. The Nora Road site is in an area of two- and three-story homes, some of which have sold for $500,000 and more. A simple single-story facade might not suffice.

The city has some time before it needs to decide on a home design. The well is being prepared for future use and won't be brought online for five or 10 years, depending on population growth, Winship said.

"We acquire the site, drill the hole and develop the aesthetics later," Barnett said. It's a thorough process that involves public meetings with neighbors, ensuring the house meets HOA rules and it must pass muster with the city's own planning commission for design review.

"We think we can do it," Winship said, of creating a pump house resembling the neighboring homes. "There is plenty of architecture available hat we can pattern something fairly close."

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com