Portland dumps 38m gallons of water after urination

[Blademaster]

Asshat of a teenager. He needs to be slapped with more serious charges of endangering public health to send a strong message. However, I still think that it is wasteful just to dump a reservoir full of water just because somebody peed into it. Urine will settle down right and you can always treat the water for any harmful bacteria by fluoridating and chlorinating it and run it through some filters. Portland water policy needs to be re-evaluated. Furthermore, tighter security need to be had around reservoirs.

BBC News - Who, What, Why: Does a reservoir need emptying if someone urinates in it?

Portland dumps 38m gallons of water after urination

The Mount Tabor number 1 reservoir in Portland, Oregon 20 June 2011 It is the second time in three years Portland's Mt Tabor reservoir has been drained

The US city of Portland, Oregon, is dumping 38m gallons (143m litres) of water from its reservoir after a teenager was caught urinating into the water supply.

CCTV footage of the Mt Tabor reservoir captured the man urinating and as two others attempting to scale the reservoir's fence.

Portland water administrator David Shaff said the health risk was small.

But he said the agency would not serve "deliberately contaminated" water.
Continue reading the main story

“The reality is our customers don't anticipate drinking water that's been contaminated by some yahoo who decided to pee into a reservoir” --- David Shaff Portland Water Bureau Administrator

Upon learning of the contamination on Wednesday, officials immediately removed the affected reservoir from service and took water quality test samples.

The water will be replaced with fresh water from the city's Bull Run supply.

Portland emptied 7.5 million gallons of water from the same reservoir in 2011 after a man urinated into it.

On Wednesday, Mr Shaff said while animal waste often found its way into the reservoir without any public health risk, there was "at least a perceived difference from my perspective" on human waste.

"I could be wrong on that, but the reality is our customers don't anticipate drinking water that's been contaminated by some yahoo who decided to pee into a reservoir," he said.

He said the city had plenty of water to meet demand and that replacing the 38 million gallons would be "easy".

"We're not in the arid South-west. We're not in drought-stricken parts of Texas or Oklahoma."

But Floy Jones, co-founder of the group Friends of the Reservoirs, criticised the decision, saying if urine reached the water, it would not harm anyone.

"It's extremely wasteful," she said.

Three men ages 18 and 19, were cited for public urination. One of the 19-year-olds was cited with public urination. Prosecutors are deciding whether to charge any of the three with a crime.

[DonBelt]

David Shaft, I mean Shaff needs to be fired. There is no wee, I mean way on this green earth that a single man can generate enough urine to contaminate 30 million gallons of water. Urine is 95% water to begin with and sterile under most circumstances.
If Portland receives any federal subsidies or grants for water, they should be cut off.
There are states south of Oregon that are dry and getting worse- they'd be happy to have 30 million gallons of water with a couple of ounces of urine in it, even if only for agricultural purposes and Oregon just flushes their water away for little cause.
Those teenagers were probably drunk and can be expected to sober up. Can't say the same for Mr Shaff.

[kato]

There's one odd thing.

When they drained and refilled that 7.5 million gallon reservoir in 2011 it supposedly cost USD 36,000 to refill it. This is about 250% of what the PWA would currently charge residents for the same amount of water. In other words, filling this 38 million gallon reservoir would yield a surplus of around 100,000 USD.

The question is... are they subsidizing the residential water, or is "oh, we just have to drain it" a good way to make extra money?

[antimony]

I was just listening to a discussion about this on radio. Apparently, bird and animal "matter" get into the reservoir all the time, but I guess human stuff has the extra "icky" factor

My question, how hard is it to cover the damn reservoir?

[bfng3569]

I was just listening to a discussion about this on radio. Apparently, bird and animal "matter" get into the reservoir all the time, but I guess human stuff has the extra "icky" factor

My question, how hard is it to cover the damn reservoir?

its a reservoir..... animals pee, crap, reproduce and die and decompose in it.

just like every other reservoir the world....

[bonehead]

LOL This isn't the first time this has happened. About every 6-7 years some dumb ass does this. Portlanders are a weird messed up lot They deal in crap all the time but they want no human waste in their tap water. In fact it is illegal to get near their main water supply (Bull Run) but the rest of the valley gets their water from the Santiam where people boat,fish and pee in all day long. You can't even hike near Bull run but you can walk right up to an open water reservoir in Portland and pee in it……or worse. Putting a lid on the water would make sense so you can bet the farm Portland will never do it.

A couple of things here.First of all Pee is relatively harmless and only carries the ick factor…unless the person has some sort of a disease. Secondly since Bull Run has water that does not have to be treated, meets fed standards as is, Portland does not have the water treatment methods and capacities other places do.They do however have water to burn until late summer.

[omon]

There's one odd thing.

When they drained and refilled that 7.5 million gallon reservoir in 2011 it supposedly cost USD 36,000 to refill it. This is about 250% of what the PWA would currently charge residents for the same amount of water. In other words, filling this 38 million gallon reservoir would yield a surplus of around 100,000 USD.

The question is... are they subsidizing the residential water, or is "oh, we just have to drain it" a good way to make extra money?

i had a feeling it was not about the urine .

[DonBelt]

David Shaff said it directly why he decided to do this. He didn't want to hear from the 100 or so cranks who would complain loudly about having to drink pee. So, a public water department's administrator doesn't have the cajones to face some angry customers and be honest with them and decides to instead waste 30 million gal of water and the money it costs? Isn't this supposed to be the spotted owl state?

[Monash]

David Shaff said it directly why he decided to do this. He didn't want to hear from the 100 or so cranks who would complain loudly about having to drink pee.

So what do these idiots think fish and other aquatic lifeforms excrete, chardonay?

[DonBelt]

So what do these idiots think fish and other aquatic lifeforms excrete, chardonay?

Fish pee is organic and all natural.

[bonehead]

David Shaff said it directly why he decided to do this. He didn't want to hear from the 100 or so cranks who would complain loudly about having to drink pee. So, a public water department's administrator doesn't have the cajones to face some angry customers and be honest with them and decides to instead waste 30 million gal of water and the money it costs? Isn't this supposed to be the spotted owl state?

Hey, money is no problem when the customers are footing the bill. A hundred or so angry people are nothing compared to the thousands who are going to vehemently complain when their water bill goes up…yet again.

[Tamara]

38 Million gallons?

Well, a few things.

First of all, that's 116.6 acre feet which is how reservoirs are measured. One acre, a foot high. Canyon Lake, Tx is 382000 acre feet (so they say).....so it sounds like a rather small reservoir.

But still..........38M gallons. Coming from Texas, that's a damn irresponsible thing to do. I wonder how the arid part of Oregon, east of the Rockies, feels about that? Further, find it rather interesting that Portland is rather blue.....but the rest of the state is rather red.

[bonehead]

38 Million gallons?

Well, a few things.

First of all, that's 116.6 acre feet which is how reservoirs are measured. One acre, a foot high. Canyon Lake, Tx is 382000 acre feet (so they say).....so it sounds like a rather small reservoir.

But still..........38M gallons. Coming from Texas, that's a damn irresponsible thing to do. I wonder how the arid part of Oregon, east of the Rockies, feels about that? Further, find it rather interesting that Portland is rather blue.....but the rest of the state is rather red.

Aside from some really dry summers water is rarely an issue in Oregon. There is a lot more where that came from this time of year with the rains and the spring snow melt. The red/blue thing covers Washington and a few other states as well.

BTW I think you meant Cascade mountains. The rockies are in other states.