Reservoir to be Drained Due to Urination (Again)

The Mount Tabor Reservoir in Portland, Oregon, has been taken offline because a man was seen on security video urinating into it Wednesday morning about 1AM. Two other men were seen trying to scale the fence, one successfully. As a result, 38 million gallons of water will be flushed from the reservoir.

“That water goes directly into people's homes," David Shaff, Portland Water Bureau administrator said. "There is no way to re-treat it."

The three teens were cited for trespassing and one for public urination. Additional charges could be filed as the investigation continues.

"We are not in the arid Southwest," Shaff said, "We have hundreds of millions of gallons available, so that makes it an easy call for me" to discard the water. He estimated the cost of cleaning and replacing the water at several thousand dollars.

This is not the first time the Mount Tabor reservoir has been drained because a man peed in it. An incident in 2011 caused 7.8 million gallons to be flushed. Federal regulations now say that water reservoirs must be covered, a project that Portland will complete in 2015. -via Arbroath

Water goes from an open-air reservoir to homes without treatment? I do not disagree with dumping and refilling, but what about the inevitability of bird waste, insects and algae?

Yuck

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

Even if the man's bladder had been full, it wouldn't amount to more than about a quart of urine. Since urine is approximately 95% water, the contaminants in the urine measure out to about 0.0125 gallons by volume. Mix that in 38 million gallons of water in the reservoir, and the contaminant level comes out to less than one part per billion. The EPA allows larger levels of many other much more hazardous substances in drinking water, so why dump this reservoir?

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

1 reply

I could have sworn that we posted about the earlier incident and had a rousing discussion about it, but I can't find that post for the life of me.

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

The cost in water is now being stated as $175,000 - not exactly cheap...

Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)

The admins for the reservoir admit to scooping out dead birds on a regular basis. They land in there daily. So bird shit and bird carcass are ok contaminants. He said that it's the perception that someone peeing in the water is bad. Couple that with the fact that they're not in a drought and "water is plentiful right now" so it's ok to waste it all.

That's public service for you.