danger
Changes to credit and debit card processing fees

Starting June 3, 2025, customers who use a credit or debit card to pay their sewer, stormwater, and water bill will pay a 2.95% processing fee. To avoid this fee, customers can make an electronic payment directly from their bank account. Learn more.

information
Portland is a Sanctuary City

Learn more.

Secondary Treatment Expansion Program

Project
Public Works
Environmental Services is making the largest investment in its North Portland wastewater treatment plant in 50 years. The Secondary Treatment Expansion Program (STEP) will expand, upgrade, and replace equipment and buildings that have been in service since the 1970s.
Aerial photo of wastewater treatment plant with four areas shaded in yellow on northern end of campus to indicate project area.

Featured content

An aerial view of the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant under construction. On the right you can see the Columbia Slough and off in the distance you can see the Downtown skyline and behind that, mountains off in the distance.

Secondary Treatment Expansion Program

An aerial view fo the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant with construction going on around the plant.

Take a Virtual Tour of the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant

Blue close up photograph of microorganisms

About the Wastewater Treatment Process

About the STEP Labor-Management-Community Oversight Committee

Large diameter pipe with golf cart driving down the center.

About the Big Pipe Project

A farm with wind turbines and a tractor

Biosolids return nutrients to the soil

Contact

Debbie Caselton (she/her)

Community Outreach
debbie.caselton@portlandoregon.gov
phone number503-823-2831
Oregon Relay Service711Oregon Relay Service

Related offices, programs, and projects

The STEP Labor-Management-Community Oversight Committee

Aerial view of bridges over the Willamette River in Downtown Portland

Environmental Services

Photograph of a City of Portland truck being fueled at an RNG fueling station located at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant

Recovering Resources

Photo shows people walking in the rain with umbrellas with bikes and rain planters along the sidewalk.

Managing Stormwater

Photo show tanks of bubbly water that are part of an on-site pretreatment facility for treating wastewater.

Preventing Pollution

Photo shows deep trench in street with large concrete sewer pipe laying next to it waiting for installation.

Connecting to the Sewer

Past Meetings and Hearings

See something we could improve on this page? Give website feedback.

Back to top