Why is Mt Tabor Park's Reservoir 6 Empty?

This is a FAQ (frequently asked question) overheard whenever one walks in Mt Tabor Park:

Why is Reservoir 6 empty? As with all things in life and love, it’s both simple and complicated:

Our Friends of Mt Tabor Park updated us, in their December 2021 Newsletter, with a brief summary of what has been reported publicly to date. As you might imagine, There’s More!

“Free Refills

Portland Water Bureau had originally planned to have the lower reservoirs filled by November 2021, so why are they still sitting empty? As part of their routine cleaning and maintenance, the Water Bureau uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect voids under the reservoirs. They found some voids and needed to drill to determine their character and ensure the reservoirs are safe to fill. Those voids are still being assessed, in addition to work needed to repair a balcony at the gatehouse which was delayed. Portland Water Bureau is working to get the reservoirs filled as soon as possible." [From the Friends of Mt Tabor Park December 2021 email newsletter, which was not at their website as of today, but you can sign up to receive future monthly newsletters.]

As you might imagine, the situation at our eastside Mt Tabor Park is more complicated than described above so stay tuned for updates from the Water Bureau, Friends of Mt Tabor Park, and our Mt Tabor Neighborhood Association. And don't forget to watch what is happening with the new wildlife habitat areas and reflection pool features the Water Bureau plans to build above the Washington Park reservoirs.

Note from Laura: For some reason, WIX (our website and blogging platform) does not show the blog post publication date (unless you peer at the URL). This seems to be a thing or trend with website and blog designers and content creators, i.e. not telling readers when the site's pages or posts were updated or published, but it's very annoying so: this blog post was published on 1/16/22, updated 2/6/22