From Disco to Drinking Water: JWC Celebrates 50th Anniversary

This year, the Joint Water Commission (JWC) celebrates its 50th anniversary, marking five decades of delivering safe, reliable drinking water to Washington County.

The JWC’s Water Treatment Plant (WTP) came online in 1976, shortly after passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, which established new national standards for water quality. At the time, the plant had a treatment capacity of 20 million gallons per day (MGD). A typical day included an 8-hour work schedule, producing between 6 and 8 MGD.

Over the following five decades, the WTP has undergone expansions roughly every decade to keep pace with the region’s growth. Today, the plant is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, treating up to 85 MGD, making it the largest water treatment plant in the State of Oregon.

That growth in capacity has been matched by growth in the population served. In 1976, the plant supplied a much smaller customer base. Today, the JWC provides water to its Partner agencies — the Cities of Hillsboro, Forest Grove, and Beaverton, and the Tualatin Valley Water District — as well as the Cities of Cornelius and North Plains, and, at times, the City of Gaston and the LA Water Co-op. In total, nearly half a million people receive water from the JWC.

As the JWC looks back on 50 years of service, it also looks ahead — building on decades of investment and expansion to continue meeting the needs of a growing community for years to come.