PORTLAND — Portland’s sewage overflowed into the Willamette River for the third time this year during Wednesday’s rain storm.
The city’s Environmental Services Bureau says it was just too much, despite the $1.4 billion Big Pipe project that was completed three years ago.
Spokesman Linc Mann tells KATU the project has been a success in controlling sewer overflows but it can’t prevent them all.
He says there used to be 50 overflows a year. There have been just 10 since the 2011 project.
Wednesday’s storm dropped 1.8 inches of rain at Portland International Airport, breaking the old mark of 1.31 inches set in 1951.
