Some serious WTF in Portland, OR
From Portland station
KATU:
Reservoir to be drained after man urinates in it
After a man urinated in a Mount Tabor reservoir early Wednesday morning that supplies city drinking water, the city took it offline and said it�ll cost about $35,000 to drain, clean and refill it.
The Portland Water Bureau said it has taken the reservoir offline.
The incident was caught on grainy surveillance video. But it shows five people and a dog at Reservoir No. 1 after park hours. After unknown objects were tossed in the reservoir, a man walks up and urinates right into the drinking water.
It will cost more than $7,500 to empty the reservoir, and that drinking water would have sold for more than $28,000. Now, it�s money down the drain.
�It�s 8 million gallons and there are people who will say it�s an overreaction,� said David Shaff, administrator for the Portland Water Bureau. �I don�t think so. I think just dealing with the �yuck factor,� I can imagine how many people would be saying �I made orange juice with that water this morning. That�s not what I want to hear.��
Shaff said they do find other things in reservoirs but don�t dump the water.
�If I shut down the reservoir every time a tennis ball, a dead duck or a dead squirrel or a Frisbee was in the reservoir, I�d shut them down almost daily,� he said.
But he said urine is different and he�d rather be cautious.
Like hell urine is different. Barring a bladder or kidney infection it is almost always sterile. A dead duck or squirrel is a lot more dangerous let alone all the bird poop. Figure one pint diluted with eight million gallons is 0.0000015624 percent -- this is in the realm of a homeopathic dilution (ie -- nothing left).
Posted by DaveH at July 31, 2011 11:26 AM