How often do you consider where water (and everything you flush along with it) goes after you “go,” or where it flows when it falls as rain, melts as snow, or runs down your driveway from a hose? You may not think about it much, because the public works staff who maintain miles of pipe, operate treatment facilities, monitor water quality, and respond to threats to public health and the environment are working to keep those essential services flowing 24 hours a day for you.
Clean Water Services employees are among the thousands of public works employees in our community helping provide an infrastructure of services in water, wastewater, and stormwater treatment as well as transportation, public buildings and spaces, parks and grounds, emergency management and first response, solid waste, and right-of-way management. These workers strive to create and maintain a livable community for all of us.
See public works in action
Go behind the scenes and see public works professionals making a difference in water quality in one of the nation’s most exciting and challenging watersheds. Comes to our free facility tours this spring and summer. Learn more and register.
You can also meet CWS staff and other public works professionals in our community at the Public Works Fair on May 17, at the Beaverton Farmers Market.
The water that leaves your home or falls on the ground returns to a far healthier Tualatin River thanks to Washington County voters supporting our formation over 50 years ago, and thanks to the efforts of the public works professionals at CWS as well as our 12 partners cities, Washington County, and many other partners who contribute year-round to the health of the people, animals, plants, and waterways of the Tualatin River Watershed.
Clean Water Services joined the Washington County Land Use and Transportation Department to tell the story of public works as the Washington County Board of Commissioners proclaimed May 18 – 24 National Public Works Week for the county. This year’s theme is “People, Purpose, Presence,” highlighting the three cornerstone ideals that motivate public works professionals every day. Public works professionals rarely meet the members of the public they serve, because when things are going right, no one knows that public works is there. Yet, with or without fanfare, public works employees and infrastructure are ever present, working in the background to protect public health and safety.
