Some of you may recall that in 2011 we discussed the efficiency and logic of Portland officials dumping 8 million gallons of drinking water after a man urinated in the city’s open reservoir. Well, it has now happened again. After a 21-year-old man admitted urinating in a Mt. Tabor reservoir last Wednesday, the city cut off its key water supply and dumped 7.8 million gallons of drinking water. The question, again, is the logic of such a move. Even if one does not accept that, as industry experts often spouted, “the solution to pollution is dilution,” this is such a tiny amount of impurities as to be untraceable. This would be no more than 12 ounces within 8 million gallons of water.
Notably, the 21-year-old man and his four friends (and a dog) were not given citations. They were seen however throwing objects into reservoir No. 1 at about 1:30 a.m. and one person “walked up to the reservoir fencing and urinated into the reservoir.”
Police say that they will be looking at a videotape and give the matter to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office for possible criminal charges. Sgt. Pete Simpson, a police spokesman, noted “It’ll kind of depend on what the surveillance video shows. He’s not out of the water yet.”
In the meantime, David Shaff, administrator for the Water Bureau, dumped the 7.8 million gallons of drinking water. While he originally thought that the cost of the water was $600,000, he reduced that figure rather substantially to a retail price of almost $28,500, and disposal fees are expected at about $7,600. The decision still remains an odd, if not illogical, one. After all, the Water Bureau routinely removes dead and rotting animals from the water and birds poop continually in the water. However, he insisted that “[t]his is different. Do you want to drink pee?” He dismissed scientific questions about the dilution of the urine and said that “most people are gonna be pretty damn squeamish about that.”
I understand that he is in the business of selling water, but why not say that the matter has been addressed and the water quality has been confirmed? In the meantime, if the man knew that this was the city’s water supply, do you believe he should be charged? The interesting legal dimension is that on a practical he did not truly foul the drinking supply for individual citizens. The dumping of the water was a reaction of the Water Bureau that many would question. Nevertheless, this was a disgusting act by someone old enough to know better.
We also have another journalistic question like the one we discussed with the underaged girls yesterday in the bullying case. Here the media is not releasing the man’s name because he was not charged with a crime. Why not? He is 21 and reportedly admitted that he urinated in the water supply of the city. That would seem newsworthy to learn who would do such a disgusting act. What do you think?
Source: Daily Mail
KID HAD AIDS AND HIV!!!!
I don’t know much about Portland’s water storage system, but surely it is not reasonable to call this a “key water supply”. The amount of water dumped is 24 acre-feet, which is enough to supply Portland’s water needs for 0.1 days.
It’s still a stupid decision to dump it.
Sounds like David Shaff had a very bad experience w/ ‘water sports’
They outta post a sign
we dont swim in your toilet
so, Don’t pee in our pool
and the indonesian wins again. as always his name gets dragged into a article /conversation about a unidentified MALE who pissed in the water and another male who threw the water out rather then nitrify it. yep barry sure has gotten into and will forever rent spaces in the brains of those who refuse to accept or either don’t understand that we havent had an american president since eisenhower got into office ask the scherffs uh i mean bushs who had 2 of them in the office and are going on a 3rd sooner then you think…….
the muslim bombers of bali have a new record for their apology tour?
cool, their old stuff was getting kinda dated.
Indonesia Home of the Muslim bombers of Bali. What they need is another Sunami
What I was trying to get across is that a person raised in the United States has more love for the United States than someone raised in a foreign country like Barak Obama. Just look at his record the apology tour etc.
Are you sure that wasn’t Ted Cruz pissing in the reservoir? Something about how municipal services are an intrusion on our independence, and we should each forage for our drinking water in homage to Ayn Rand?
Bruce, I didn’t know what you meant with Hawaii, I’ve seen people say stuff like that because they didn’t seem to know Hawaii was part of the U.S. My first presumption would be that you meant throwing Hawaii into the mix for that reason, otherwise why even mention it. I’m glad you weren’t using Hawaii to infer that the President is not an American.
“People who hate Ted Cruz are RACIST!,”
I don’t hate Ted Cruz. I just think that after loosing the vote to prevent passage of ACA, and loosing about 40 attempts to repeal ACA, his techniques including ultimatums and shutting down the government are undemocratic and dangerous.
Ted Cruz, despite his strong feeling, disrespects the principle of majority rule and the constitution.
But hate Ted Cruz? No. Matter of fact if he is ever in the area he ought to HMU so we can get a beer and talk politics. Now that would be an interesting evening.
I didn’t say he wasn’t born in the U.S.
Uh, dude, Hawaii is the U.S.
That’s my knee jerk response. But what if Bruce is doing satire? But I’ve heard RWNJ’s interviewed that didn’t seem to know that Hawaii is the U.S. so can I make that presumption?
S*its f’ed up when the national political dialogue is so ridiculous that you can’t tell ‘serious’ from ‘satire’. It’s just plain sad.
Bruce,
Don’t you understand that Canada is socialist and Indonesia is capitalist? I never took you for a commie lover.