true 2009-10-12T21:00:00-07:00 image/jpeg oex_bullrun_banner.jpg 54867 2009-09-24T11:41:33-07:00 2009-10-12T21:00:00-07:00 <p>For 115 years, Portland, Oregon has enjoyed some of the purest and best-tasting drinking water of any large American city.&nbsp; The water is diverted from a river in a very wet area of the Cascade Range, a small, isolated watershed with high levels of rain and snow.&nbsp; The river, the lake that feeds it and the surrounding forested slopes all share the same name:&nbsp; Bull Run.<br /> <br /> The Bull Run watershed drains about 100 square miles. It boasts beautiful views of Mt Hood, lush old-growth forest and one of the prettiest big dams in Oregon. But to protect the water from contamination, the entire area has long been closed to public access.&nbsp; Bull Run water serves nearly 25% of all Oregonians. Yet this program may be many viewers' first real look at the source of their drinking water.<br /> <br /> &quot;Bull Run&quot; combines old photographs and charts with modern aerial footage and GIS mapping.&nbsp; Casey Short, author of the only full-length book on Bull Run, recounts its early history.&nbsp; And Dave Rowley, one of the few people to have actually lived in the watershed, shares stories from his childhood there.<br /> <br /> Other people in the program include: Catherine Howells, a water historian who teaches courses on Bull Run at Portland State University; Rick McClure, a regional historian for the U.S. Forest Service; Richard Robbins, Natural Resource Program Manager for the Portland Water Bureau; and the Bureau's Chief Engineer, Michael Stuhr.</p> false 25 iQ93726o20091218153903 <p>The history of Portland's water supply.</p> image/jpeg nav_about.jpg 1244 image/jpeg main_bull_run.jpg 14105 http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=X7GjS9oTJ/I&offerid=135203.10000164&type=3 <p>Few other cities in the world have water as pure and as well protected as Portland. For nearly 115 years, an ingenious, gravity-fed system has delivered mountain rainwater from an isolated river called the Bull Run. Yet the rich history of Portland&rsquo;s water supply has unfolded largely unbeknownst to the people it serves.</p> Bull Run 2010-02-08T11:13:41-08:00 false