Water Distribution System of Burlington District Home appliances that behave erratically vex residents of Harborton neighborhood in Burlington District, a slender strip of land on the northwestern edge of Portland. Showerheads discharge generous blasts one minute and stingy droplets the next. Lawn sprinklers sometimes refuse to perform their aquatic dance routine. The same washing machine or dishwasher may take twice as long as it did the previous day to wash the same basket of laundry or set of china. Feel the Pressure Burlington District purchases its water from the City of Portland.
Water pressure is reduced by leakage along the distribution path.
The long, skinny physical layout of the district itself, observed principal engineer Jim Doane from Portland Bureau of Water Works, exacerbates the pressure swings. A Johnston four-inch submersible turbine pump is installed at the southeastern end of the district. But the abrupt changes in the flow also produce both high pressures and negative pressures, a phenomenon known as water hammer. The hammer hits Harborton hard and it hits repeatedly, as often as 100 times a day, during high-demand days in the summer, according to Jim Doan's count. Water pressure fluctuation in Harborton Neighborhood, Burlington Water District.