Related News
Related News
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Spring Cleaning? How about Spring Emergency Preparedness!
Spring is officially here and that means the plants are blooming, the sun is (sometimes) shining, and the grass is green! We've had our fair share of severe weather already, but spring weather is notoriously unpredictable. While you're in the midst of spring cleaning and garden care, consider completing these emergency preparedness tasks.
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EWEB General Manager Delivers 2024 State of the Utility
General Manager Frank Lawson delivered his address at the March 5 public Board of Commissioners meeting
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State of the McKenzie Watershed
EWEB’s Drinking Water Source Protection (DWSP) team says the McKenzie River continues to be an excellent source for drinking water.
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Nine days without power: My ice storm story as an EWEB customer and employee
While beautiful and peaceful, buying a home on the edge of the forest and surrounded by trees has its tradeoffs. Moving “upriver,” I knew there would be more threats to prepare for, including Mother Nature’s seasonal surprises.
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Preparation and Resilience: How EWEB Maintained Water Service During Recent Ice Storm
Learn about the projects and people that helped EWEB keep water flowing throughout the extreme weather event.
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EWEB achieves power restoration milestone over the weekend
Crews have so far restored power for 92% of customers who originally lost power at the height of the ice storm.
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Reenergized McKenzie River Valley transmission lines allow EWEB crews to restore power upriver
On Friday, a majority of EWEB crews tackled power restoration efforts upriver, after federally managed transmission lines were reenergized Thursday.
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EWEB estimates one week to complete power system restoration
On Wednesday, EWEB crews restored power for about 10,000 customers by repairing large equipment first.
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Second round of ice and ensuing thaw prompt mass power outages
On Wednesday, all EWEB crews, who have been working nonstop since Saturday, traversed EWEB’s service territory assessing the damage and restoring transmission lines and main power feeders.
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Power restored at EWEB’s water treatment plant
Crews restored electric power at EWEB's Hayden Bridge Water Filtration Plant Monday evening, allowing operators to switch off the generators and rely again on the grid. Meanwhile, EWEB crews brace for additional outages amidst second round of ice and during the coming thaw.
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EWEB crews making downed lines safe and restoring power across Eugene and the foothills
As EWEB works to restore electric service to customers affected by the ice storm, the customer-owned utility is following established policies and its “hierarchy of repair” to prioritize repairs that restore electric service to the greatest number of customers.
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Leaburg Decommissioning Action Plan
Plan details next steps through regulatory processes to begin dismantling Leaburg Dam by 2032.
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What’s ahead in 2024: General manager’s message to EWEB customer-owners
At the start of the new year, we back at accomplishments from 2023 and look ahead at what's to come in 2024.
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Currin Substation: End of year update
EWEB Engineer Philip Peterson explains what's been happening in the final stretch to complete the substation rebuild.
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EWEB 2023 year in review
In 2023, EWEB invested in our community with grants, rebates and an array of other programs and measures aimed at fulfilling our core values of safety, reliability, affordability, environmental responsibility and community/culture.
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Tests show EWEB water is free of “forever chemicals”
March 21, 2023 • Rachael McDonald, EWEB Communications
EWEB is already in compliance with a new proposed federal rule that would require municipalities to test for PFAs, or forever chemicals, in drinking water. The good news for EWEB customers is that in over ten years of testing we have not found PFAs in our water.
On March 14, 2023 the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposed National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six PFAS, (including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, commonly known as GenX Chemicals), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS)). The rule is set to be finalized by the end of 2023.
Brenda Casarez is EWEB’s water quality compliance specialist. She said PFAS have been around since the 1940s. They’re used for water-proofing and found in things like stain-resistant carpets, waterproof clothing and non-stick cookware.
“They do not break down in the environment,” said Casarez. “So, once we put them out there, they are there to stay.”
Scientific studies show exposure to PFAS can increase risk of cancers and birth defects as well as other health problems in people and animals.
“EWEB has been testing for PFAS since 2013 in our finished drinking water, so the water that goes to Eugene,” said Casarez. “And, we have not found any PFAS in the finished water. We also test the McKenzie River and a lot of the tributaries of the McKenzie River, and we have not found any PFAS.”
Casarez said testing technology has improved so that they can test for lower levels of PFAS and even at those low levels we do not see any PFAs in our drinking water or our source water. PFAs are a concern in other parts of the country. A recent study found high levels of the forever chemicals are found in freshwater fish in Lake Erie. Casarez said EWEB is complying with the proposed rule already.
“EWEB tests above and beyond for all of our contaminants,” said Casarez. “It does give a very comforting feeling that we test for these things, even before they are required, and we know that they are not in our water. It makes me very happy to be able to tell customers when they call me, we’ve already checked for that, and we don’t have it.”
More information on EWEB’s water quality testing.