Plumber Bend Oregon: Two Water Companies, Two Different Waters, One City
Most cities have one water supplier and one set of water rules. Bend has more than one, and the difference between them is not a billing detail. On one side of the line the water arrives from a mountain watershed, is pushed through a membrane filter and has chlorine added to it. On the other side it comes out of deep wells in volcanic rock and, in the supplier’s own published words, generally has nothing added to it at all.
The rules diverge as sharply as the chemistry. One supplier enforces watering hours all year with fines behind them. The other publishes guidelines and says plainly that it has no watering restrictions. One expects you to hire your own backflow tester. The other sends its own certified tester round every summer. Same city, same postal address format, different answers to almost every question a plumber asks first.
Everything below is what the City of Bend and Avion Water Company publish about their own systems, read on 1 August 2026, with the sources named at the foot and the figures we refused to state named beside them.
Why a Plumber Bend Oregon Households Call Asks Who Sells You Water First
That a city can contain more than one water supplier is not news on this site. Our Bakersfield page is built on it, and our Thousand Oaks page covers a city that describes itself as one of several water purveyors in its own valley. In both of those places the difference between suppliers is jurisdictional. Different bill, different phone number, different office to argue with. The pipe carries broadly the same thing and the rules broadly match.
Bend is not that. Here the difference between suppliers reaches the inside of your plumbing. The City of Bend states that all surface water from the Bend Municipal Watershed is treated at the Water Filtration Facility by membrane filtration, and that a small amount of chlorine is added to deactivate viruses and bacteria and to keep the storage tanks and pipelines clean. It says small amounts of chlorine are added to its groundwater too when the water is pumped.
Avion Water Company publishes the opposite position about its own supply. Its water comes entirely from deep wells in the basalt rock layer, and the company states that because the water is so clean it is not required to filter it or to add any chemicals to it. Asked directly whether the water is chlorinated, Avion answers that generally it is not, and that chlorine is added after line breaks to make the water safe once a main has been repaired. Asked about fluoride, the answer is no.
Two suppliers, two chemically different waters, one set of city limits. Membrane filtration itself is not a Bend story and we are not writing it up as one, because our Oregon coverage and several plant pages elsewhere on this site already cover the process. What is a Bend story is that the process stops at a line you cannot see from the street.
A Watershed Bought In The Twenties And A Second Source Kept For August
The City states that its main source is fresh surface water from the Bend Municipal Watershed, which flows into the system using gravity, and that the watershed sits deep within the Deschutes National Forest and has been the primary source since 1926. During summer, when use rises mainly for irrigation, the City says it also relies on a second source, groundwater from the Deschutes Aquifer, described as a backup supply that gives extra security and helps meet demand from a growing community.
The history behind that arrangement is worth a paragraph because it explains the shape of the system. The City writes that in 1923 the Deschutes River, then the main water source, became polluted by algae blooms in reservoirs being built upstream, and that the private company then in charge, Bend Water Power and Light, struggled with the legal, engineering and funding requirements of finding a new supply. The City purchased the water system and created the Bend Municipal Watershed, and has worked with the U.S. Forest Service to manage it since 1926.
Because the watershed is on national forest land, the arrangement is not purely local. The City states that the U.S. Forest Service requires special use permits, agreements and regular monitoring for any water used from the Bend Municipal Watershed. A municipal water supply that runs on a federal permit is a different kind of asset from one that runs on land the city owns outright, and it is one reason the second source matters.
On lead, the City publishes a result rather than a promise. Its Drinking Water Service Line Inventory Project, completed in 2024 under new federal rules, inspected both public and private service lines using a statistically approved sampling method across around 370 private properties, and found no lead or galvanized service lines requiring replacement in either the public or the private portion of the distribution system. That is a useful thing to know before anybody starts guessing at a discoloured water complaint.
The Other Supplier Is A Company, Not A Department
Avion Water Company states that it made its first water delivery in 1968, to Avion Estates, a subdivision in southeast Bend, and that it has since grown to more than 16,000 customers across Deschutes and Crook Counties. It describes itself as still locally owned. Its water comes entirely from deep wells in the basalt rock layer of what it calls one of the largest aquifers in the United States, and it says it tests the water forty times per month.
Structurally it is not one system but several. The company publishes consumer confidence reports under a list of separate public water system identifiers, including Greater Avion and named systems such as Odin Falls, Red Cloud, Sun Country, Tetherow Crossing, Tumalo Rim and Whychus Canyon Estates. A supplier that reports under many system numbers is a supplier that grew by absorbing small systems, and that is a useful thing to hold in mind when the age and material of a street main is the question on the table.
The regulatory difference is the one nobody expects. Because Avion is a water utility regulated by the Oregon Public Utility Commission, the consumer protections that apply to its customers come from a PUC schedule rather than from a city ordinance, and the company publishes that summary itself. We have covered a PUC escalation right once before, on our North Carolina coverage and more directly on a Tennessee page for an investor owned gas utility. What is different here is that the rules are the water rules, and they are not the same as the energy rules.
Three of them are worth knowing. Water utilities must give written notice at least fifteen days before disconnection and another at least seven days before, where electric and gas companies are described as giving fifteen days and then five. Within forty eight hours of a disconnection the water utility must make a good faith effort to contact the customer or an adult at the residence. And medical certificates, which prevent immediate disconnection elsewhere, are stated not to apply to water utilities at all.
Four Things That Are Not The Same On Both Sides Of A Line You Cannot See
None of these are opinions about which supplier is better. They are four published differences that change what a plumber should expect to find, and all four are stated by the suppliers themselves rather than inferred by us.
What is in the water
The City adds a small amount of chlorine to both of its sources. Avion says it is not required to filter or add any chemicals, and that chlorine goes in after line breaks only. A chlorine taste complaint is a question about which supplier before it is a question about a filter.
What the law lets you water
City irrigation regulations run all year: no irrigation from 9am to 5pm, odd and even house numbers on odd and even days, with fines behind unresolved violations. Avion states it has no watering restrictions and publishes guidelines instead.
Who tests your backflow assembly
On City water you hire a state certified tester for the irrigation assembly yourself. Avion operates a residential testing programme established in 2007 under which its own certified tester performs the annual test between 1 April and 30 September.
Who writes the customer rules
One supplier answers to a council and to city code. The other answers to the Oregon Public Utility Commission, whose water rules on deposits, notice periods and disconnection differ from its energy rules on the face of the published summary.
Where The City’s Pipe Stops, And The One Device It Owns On Your Land
The City is unusually clear about the backflow question, and the answer surprises people in both directions. It states that some properties have more than one backflow device, and that the device connected to the water meter is owned and tested each year by the City of Bend. Its own FAQ puts it flatly: the irrigation backflow is not the assembly inside the City of Bend water meter box, the Water Services Department owns and maintains that one, and the irrigation assembly is somewhere between the meter and your irrigation system on your private property.
Everything past the meter is yours. The City does not provide testing for backflow devices on irrigation systems or commercial properties. It sends annual reminder letters, and it allocates three duties to the property owner or water customer by name: hiring a certified backflow tester, making sure the test is completed, and making sure the results reach the Water Services Department. It adds that most testers will send the results for you but that it is still your job to make sure it happens. Where a renter is on the water bill, the City says the responsibility is the renter’s.
Two dates matter more than the rule does. The City says backflow assemblies can break over the winter and should be tested yearly before the irrigation season, and that due dates differ between neighbours because the date is on your letter rather than on a calendar everyone shares. Assemblies must be tested at installation, annually, after repairs and after relocating, and the testing must be done by a certified tester. Our Asheville page covers what happens elsewhere when a test fails.
The meter installation rules then move the line again by property class. The City buys and installs meters from three quarters of an inch through two inches, and for those it provides the meter, automated meter reading equipment, a backflow prevention device and meter setting materials. For commercial, industrial and multi family properties it provides only the meter and the reading equipment, and the owner or developer installs the backflow device to state and city requirements. Meters of three inches and up are bought and installed by the owner or developer entirely. Commercial work is covered on our commercial plumbing page.
Then the sentence that should be read twice before any quote is priced. The City states that if a new water service line is needed, from the water main to the meter or from the meter to your building, that work is the responsibility of the customer or applicant. Both halves. In a great many cities the run from the main to the meter belongs to the utility, and assuming that here would put a whole trench on the wrong side of the estimate.
Two smaller rules travel with it. Meter boxes cannot be placed in driveways, which is in the City’s standards and specifications rather than a preference. And after installation the applicant or customer is responsible for keeping the meter and box safe until the building permit is finalised or landscaping is completed, with damage during construction or landscaping charged in full to whoever signed the meter installation request.
An Expansion Tank Is Not Optional On A Bend Water Heater
The City publishes a water heater permitting guide, and it opens by saying that if you are installing a new water heater you will need a permit. The reason it gives is not bureaucratic. The permit process, it says, helps prevent potential hazards such as fire, electric shock or explosion, and a plumbing permit is required so that the installation meets safety standards and building codes.
Inside that guide is one line that decides the cost of a great many replacements. If you are replacing or adding a new water heater, the City states, an expansion tank is required. Not recommended, not required where a check valve is present, not left to the installer to judge. Required, stated inside the permit requirements step.
The physics behind an expansion tank is not a Bend subject and we are not going to reprint it. Water expands when it is heated, a closed system gives that expansion nowhere to go, and the relief valve on the heater ends up doing a job it was not meant to do daily. Our Roswell page works through the code language and the allocation of responsibility in detail, and our water heater service page covers the component itself. What is specific to Bend is that the requirement is unconditional in the permit guide.
The permit structure is worth knowing before you apply, because it is one application and potentially three permits. A plumbing permit is required to install a water heater. An electrical permit may also be needed if the installation involves electrical work, for example adding or moving an outlet. And a mechanical permit is needed for the gas piping and venting if you are installing a new gas water heater or replacing an electric heater with a gas one. The City says you submit one application for the project and select the permit types you need during it.
That last one is the trap in a fuel switch. A homeowner replacing an electric tank with a gas unit is not doing a like for like swap in this city’s permit system, they are doing a job that has crossed into a second trade permit, and a quote that has not accounted for it is a quote that will change.
Bend Puts A Repair Deadline For Leaking Fixtures In Its Water Code
Most cities publish outdoor watering rules for a drought season and put them away in October. The City of Bend states that its regulations are in effect all year long. Irrigation hours run from 5pm to 9am, with no irrigation between 9am and 5pm because of heat, wind, evaporation and high system demand, and the City names 7pm to 6am as the best window. Even house numbers water on even numbered days, odd on odd, and every address may water on day thirty one of the month.
The rules are aimed at unattended equipment. The City says they apply to hoses or hose end devices left unattended, and that they do not apply to watering by hand held hose while it is being manually controlled. Temporary variances exist for new sod, seed or plantings by phoning the conservation line. Unresolved violations, it says, will lead to a fine.
Then comes the item that turns a conservation rule into a plumbing deadline. Among the listed water waste violations, alongside runoff into the street and sprinklers hitting driveways, the City includes irrigation components or plumbing fixtures that are leaking or broken and not repaired within ten business days of receiving notice. A dripping outside tap or a failed irrigation valve is not merely wasteful in this city, it is a code matter with a clock attached to it once the letter arrives.
Ten business days is enough time to get a real repair done and not enough time to think about it for a fortnight. If a notice has landed, the sequence that works is to find the leak before booking the fix, because an irrigation leak, a service line leak and a failing fixture look identical on a bill and are three different jobs. Our leak detection page covers how the three are separated. A different ten business day rule exists on the backflow side in other cities, which is why the letter you are holding matters more than the number.
Bend Puts Its Stormwater Into The Ground, Above Its Own Drinking Water
The City describes a stormwater system that is not mainly a network of pipes to a river. It says it takes care of many stormwater facilities around the city including drywells, drill holes, catch basins, stormwater pipes and outfalls. Drywells and drill holes are structures for putting surface water down into the ground rather than carrying it away across it, which is a reasonable design on porous volcanic ground and has a consequence the City states directly.
That consequence is this. The City writes that preventing polluted water from entering the storm drains is vitally important because they drain to the Deschutes River and towards our underground drinking water aquifer. The same aquifer supplies the groundwater the City pumps to supplement supply during the peak watering season. On its erosion control note it makes the same point about sediment from disturbed soils reaching stormwater systems that drain to the river or the groundwater aquifer.
For a household that changes what a storm drain is. It is not a hole that makes a puddle go away, it is the top of a short path to the water table. The City asks that nothing but rain enters, naming paint, pet and human waste, fertilisers, grass clippings and debris, and it asks residents to keep drains near their home clear of debris and trash and free of snow and ice in winter to prevent flooding.
The practical plumbing edge of that is narrow and worth stating plainly. Nothing from a plumbing job belongs in a storm drain. Not a drained water heater’s sediment, not the rinse from a jetting job, not softener brine, not the contents of a sump that has been sitting. Where a drainage question sits between the storm system and the sanitary system, our drain cleaning page covers how the two are told apart. The City also publishes a stormwater fee set by impervious surface area, which is why a new patio or a larger driveway can quietly change a monthly bill.
A Three Stage Curtailment Plan, And The Trigger That Is A Supply Chain Problem
The City publishes a three stage plan for managing water use when water is in short supply, and says it might be needed during a long drought or if something unexpected affects the system such as a fire, flood, earthquake or power outage. The stages are named Potential, Serious and Severe, they can be brought in step by step or all at once depending on urgency, and they are separate from the seasonal watering advisories covered above.
One trigger in the list is unlike the others and deserves attention, because it is not about weather or damage at all. Stage one may be triggered by delays in getting treatment chemicals like chlorine. A drinking water system can be pushed towards restriction by a delivery that does not arrive, which is a useful thing to remember on the day somebody tells you a water problem must be a pipe problem.
The enforcement ladder is explicit. Stage one relies on voluntary cooperation and is not enforced. Stage two prohibits all nonessential water use and the City says it can issue penalties through its Code Enforcement team. Stage three allows only water needed for drinking and sanitation, bans all outdoor use including irrigation, pools, fountains and surface washing, and the City states that violations can result in fines of up to four hundred dollars per day.
The honest footnote is that none of it has been needed. The City says that in the past ten years Bend has not had a water shortage serious enough to require curtailment, and that the short term issues it has had, naming lightning strikes, equipment problems and murky water from storms, were handled by switching between the two sources. Having Bridge Creek surface water and Deschutes Aquifer groundwater to switch between is the resilience, and it is a better answer than any stage of the plan.
What Happens After The Drain, And The One Item That Breaks It
The City describes the waste side in plain terms. About half the water delivered to homes and businesses ends up going down the drain, clean water pipes go into buildings and wastewater pipes carry used water out, and that used water travels through a network of underground pipes and pumps to the Water Reclamation Facility, where it is filtered, cleaned, disinfected, tested and returned to the water cycle.
Treatment is physical and then biological. Solids are removed by sedimentation with gravity doing the separating, then microorganisms in aeration basins consume solids and dissolved organic matter, turning waste into carbon dioxide, water and energy. The City calls the plant a good bug factory, which is a fair description of a process whose working parts are alive. The resulting biosolids are dried and spread on crops in Central Oregon, and Bend produces Class A biosolids, meaning the City states they can be used by the public.
The failure mode the City names is the one every collection system in the country now names. Disposable wipes clog pipes, whether or not they are labelled flushable, and belong in the trash. The City says wipes do not break down like toilet paper, can travel through pipes without dissolving, and stick to grease and debris to form blockages in pipes and pumps, leading to sewer backups into homes and streets.
On a household lateral the same physics arrives sooner and cheaper. A run that has been catching wipes and grease narrows before it blocks, which is why a drain that has been a little slow for months is a different job from one that stopped this morning. Our sewer line repair page covers when a camera survey answers the question and when it does not, and our emergency plumbing page covers the first ten minutes of a backup, which is almost always to stop adding water to the system.
Two Lookups Before Anything Is Priced
The sequence below is our method rather than an instruction from anybody official, and we label it as ours. It exists because this city publishes a water purveyor map, and a city served by one supplier does not need one.
- Establish the supplier for the exact address
Not the neighbouring street, not the postal address. The City of Bend publishes a water purveyor map among its cross connection resources, and which side of it you fall on decides the chemistry, the watering law, the backflow arrangement and the phone number.
- Establish which devices on the property are not yours
On City water the assembly in the meter box is the City’s to own and test. The irrigation assembly past the meter is yours. On Avion residential service the company’s own tester handles the annual test between April and September. Three different answers, and the wrong one wastes a visit.
- Separate a supply question from a drainage question
Pressure, discolouration, taste and meter questions belong to whichever supplier serves you. Slow drains, backups, odours and lateral condition belong to the sewer side and to the property. They are answered by different people and often by different phone numbers.
- Count the permits before counting the hours
A water heater replacement needs a plumbing permit and an expansion tank. A fuel switch adds a mechanical permit. Electrical work adds a third. One application, up to three permit types, and a quote that ignores that will move.
Bend Plumbing Questions, Answered Straight
Two suppliers with opposite answers, a backflow device the City owns on your land, a service line that is yours on both sides of the meter, and a watering rule with a repair deadline in it.
It depends on the address and it cannot be answered from the city limit. The City of Bend Water Services Department supplies part of the city, and Avion Water Company, which states it made its first delivery to a subdivision in southeast Bend in 1968 and now serves more than 16,000 customers across Deschutes and Crook Counties, supplies another part. The City publishes a water purveyor map among its cross connection resources. Check the exact address before assuming which set of rules applies, because the chemistry, the watering law and the backflow arrangement all change with the answer.
That depends on your supplier and the two answers are opposite. The City of Bend states that a small amount of chlorine is added to its membrane filtered surface water and that small amounts are added to its groundwater when it is pumped. Avion Water Company answers the same question by saying that generally its water is not chlorinated, and that chlorine is added after line breaks to ensure safety once a main has been repaired. Avion also states it does not add fluoride.
The City states its main source is surface water from the Bend Municipal Watershed, deep within the Deschutes National Forest, which flows into the system by gravity and has been the primary source since 1926. During summer, when outdoor use rises, it also pumps groundwater from the Deschutes Aquifer as a second source. Because the watershed sits on national forest land, the City states the U.S. Forest Service requires special use permits, agreements and regular monitoring for water used from it.
Yes. The City publishes a water heater permitting guide stating that a plumbing permit is required to install a water heater in Bend, so the installation meets safety standards and building codes. The same guide states that if you are replacing or adding a new water heater, an expansion tank is required. An electrical permit may also be needed if electrical work is involved, and a mechanical permit is needed for gas piping and venting if you are installing a new gas heater or replacing an electric one with gas.
The City of Bend, if you are a City water customer. The City states that the backflow device connected to the water meter is owned and tested each year by the City of Bend, and its FAQ adds that the Water Services Department owns and maintains the assembly inside the meter box. The irrigation backflow is a different device, sitting between the meter and your irrigation system on your private property, and that one is yours to have tested annually by a state certified tester.
On City of Bend water, the Water Services customer. The City states that the customer is responsible for hiring a state certified backflow tester, and that if a renter receives the notice and is on the water bill, the renter is responsible. It does not provide testing for irrigation systems or commercial properties. Avion Water Company runs a different arrangement for residential customers: it states that under a programme established in 2007 its own certified tester performs the annual test each year from 1 April through 30 September.
The customer, on both sides of the meter. The City states that if a new water service line is needed, from the water main to the meter or from the meter to your building, that work is the responsibility of the customer or applicant. That is worth confirming early, because in many cities the run from the main to the meter belongs to the utility and a quote written on that assumption would be short by a trench.
For meters from three quarters of an inch through two inches, yes. The City states it purchases and installs those, and on residential properties it provides the meter, automated meter reading equipment, a backflow prevention device and meter setting materials. For commercial, industrial and multi family properties it provides the meter and reading equipment only, and the owner or developer installs the backflow device. Meters of three inches and larger are bought and installed by the owner or developer.
On City of Bend water they run all year rather than for a season. Irrigation is allowed from 5pm to 9am and not from 9am to 5pm, even house numbers water on even numbered days and odd on odd, and every address may water on day thirty one. The rules apply to unattended hoses and hose end devices and not to a hand held hose being manually controlled. Avion Water Company states that it has no watering restrictions and publishes guidelines instead.
The City lists it. Among the water waste items that can lead to a code violation it names irrigation components or plumbing fixtures that are leaking or broken and are not repaired within ten business days of receiving notice, alongside runoff into the street, sprinklers hitting hard surfaces, water flowing into gutters or storm drains, and washing vehicles or hardscapes without a hose shutoff nozzle. It says unresolved violations will lead to a fine.
Into the ground as well as into the river. The City states it maintains stormwater facilities including drywells, drill holes, catch basins, stormwater pipes and outfalls, and that preventing pollution entering storm drains is vitally important because they drain to the Deschutes River and towards the underground drinking water aquifer. Nothing from a plumbing job belongs in one, and the City asks that only rain goes in.
The City says not seriously in the last decade. Its curtailment page states that in the past ten years Bend has not had a water shortage serious enough to require curtailment, and that the short term issues it has had, which it names as lightning strikes, equipment problems and murky water from storms, were managed by switching between its two sources. The plan itself has three stages and the severe stage carries fines of up to four hundred dollars per day.
Avion answers this on its own FAQ. It says sand or dirt can be drawn up by the well or can result from a water line repair, and that it works to remove sand and dirt by regular flushing, which improves quality by increasing circulation in the system. If the problem is at one sink only, it suggests removing and cleaning the aerator on that faucet, which is a genuinely common cause and costs nothing to check.
No, and the search results mix them constantly. This page is about Bend, Oregon, in Deschutes County, on the dry side of the Cascades. South Bend is in Indiana, West Bend is in Wisconsin, North Bend and Gila Bend and Fort Bend are different places again. Bend is the only city in the United States carrying the bare name, which is why the compound names are the ones that need the state after them rather than this one.
Sources, And What We Refused To State
Sources for the membrane filtration of surface water from the Bend Municipal Watershed, the small amount of chlorine added to surface water and to groundwater, the natural filtration of groundwater through soil, volcanic rock, sand and gravel, the state accredited laboratory and the 2024 Drinking Water Service Line Inventory Project inspecting around 370 private properties and finding no lead or galvanized service lines requiring replacement come from the City of Bend water quality page and Water Services page, read 1 August 2026.
The gravity flow from the watershed, the primary source date of 1926, the Deschutes Aquifer as a summer second source, the 1923 pollution of the Deschutes River by algae blooms in reservoirs being built upstream, Bend Water Power and Light as the private company then in charge, the City purchase of the water system and the U.S. Forest Service special use permit, agreement and monitoring requirement come from the Bend Municipal Watershed page.
The City ownership and annual testing of the backflow device connected to the water meter, the statement that the irrigation backflow is not that device and sits on private property, the three customer duties, the renter rule, the winter breakage and pre irrigation season timing, the individual due date on the letter, and the requirement to test at installation, annually, after repairs and after relocation come from the cross connection and backflow control page.
The meter size split, the residential supply of meter, automated meter reading equipment, backflow device and setting materials, the commercial arrangement in which the owner installs the backflow device, the customer responsibility for a new service line from the main to the meter and from the meter to the building, the driveway prohibition for meter boxes and the damage liability of whoever signed the request come from the water meter installations page.
The plumbing permit requirement, the statement that an expansion tank is required when replacing or adding a water heater, and the electrical and mechanical permit conditions on one application come from the water heater permitting guide. The year round irrigation hours, the odd and even day rule, the day thirty one exception, the unattended equipment scope, the hand held hose exemption, the variance route and the water waste list including the ten business day repair item come from the outdoor watering regulations page.
The three curtailment stages, their triggers including delays in getting treatment chemicals like chlorine, the enforcement position at each stage, the fines of up to four hundred dollars per day, the statement that no curtailment has been needed in the past ten years and the naming of lightning strikes, equipment problems and murky water from storms come from the water curtailment stages page.
The drywells, drill holes, catch basins, pipes and outfalls, the statement that storm drains drain to the Deschutes River and towards the underground drinking water aquifer, the list of what must not enter and the impervious surface basis of the stormwater fee come from the stormwater page. The wastewater process description, the Class A biosolids statement and the wipes warning come from the wastewater page.
The 1968 first delivery to Avion Estates in southeast Bend, the more than 16,000 customers in Deschutes and Crook Counties, the deep basalt wells, the statement that the company is not required to filter or add any chemicals, and the forty tests per month come from the Avion Water Company home page. The chlorination and fluoride answers, the no watering restrictions answer and the sand, cloudy water and aerator answers come from its FAQ.
The residential backflow testing programme established in 2007 with annual testing by Avion’s certified tester from 1 April through 30 September, and the thirty day window and reporting duty on commercial services, come from its backflow page. The Oregon Public Utility Commission summary of consumer rights, including the water specific notice periods, the forty eight hour good faith contact requirement and the statement that medical certificates do not apply to water utilities, comes from its consumer rights and responsibilities page. The list of separately identified public water systems comes from its consumer confidence report index.
Source disagreement printed rather than resolved. The City describes its groundwater in two ways on two current pages. The watershed page calls the Deschutes Aquifer a second source and a backup supply that gives extra security, while the Water Services overview describes groundwater as pumped to supplement supply during the peak watering season. Read together they suggest a source that is both routine in summer and held in reserve otherwise, but the City does not say that in one sentence, so neither do we.
What we refused to state, and why. No water, sewer or stormwater rate, no system development charge, no permit fee, no meter installation charge and no backflow test price, because no schedule was read and the City directs those to a separate fees page. No hardness figure, no chlorine residual, no fluoride level and no contaminant result for either supplier, because those live in annual consumer confidence reports and a value carried over from a previous edition would be wrong.
No population of Bend and no customer count for the City system. No count of miles of water main, sewer main or storm pipe, no plant capacity and no flow figure, because none was published on the pages read. No boundary between the two suppliers is drawn or described here beyond the fact that the City publishes a purveyor map, because drawing it from anything other than that map would be a guess. No claim that any particular Bend street or subdivision is on one supplier rather than the other.
No depth is given for the Deschutes Aquifer or for any Avion well, because neither supplier publishes one on the pages read, and a depth borrowed from another city would be exactly the kind of borrowed fact this site refuses. No count of the separately identified Avion water systems is stated as a total, because the index lists some systems as folded into others for the current year and we did not read every report. No response time, crew count or coverage promise appears anywhere on this page.
Nearby pages written to the same standard: Salem, Portland and Beaverton.