Portland, Oregon water officials are discarding 38 million gallons of drinking water that a 19-year-old was caught urinating into one of the city's reservoirs. A security camera caught the man urinating at about one in the morning on Wednesday, April 15, 2014 through an iron fence into Mount Tabor Reservoir No. 5 in southeastern Portland….Minutes later, two other men, ages 18 and 19, attempted to scale the fence and one of them entered the reservoir.
The three men were caught, citied for trespassing and prohibited from returning to Mount Tabor Park. The 19-year-old was cited for public urination…."Our customers have an expectation that their water is not deliberately contaminated," said David Shaff with the Portland Water Bureau. He acknowledged that the health risk is slight. "We have the ability to meet that expectation while minimizing public health concerns."...
The 38 million gallons--about 760,000 soaks in a bathtub--will be drained into the sewage system, eventually reaching a treatment plant before they are dumped into the Columbia River. [Who knows how many dead bodies lay on the bottom of the river receiving this cleansed water?]
In 2011, the city dumped 8 million gallons, a mere 160,000 baths, from Mount Tabor Reservoir No 1 after a 22-year-old man from Molalla, Oregon admitted to urinating in it. He eventually pleaded guilty to misuse of a reservoir and was sentenced to community service. [Theres a criminal offense in Oregon called misuse of a reservoir?] In that case, it cost the water bureau $32,700, passed on to customers, to drain the reservoir, and that decision caused a wave of backlash from many who said it was an unnecessary response.
Some complained that animals sometimes fall into the reservoir and die without any such action taken. "I think part of it is just that general yuck factor of, 'Yes, we have birds on there all the time, but we don't have people peeing in it all the time,'" Shaff said in defending the 2011 decision. If the area were in drought conditions, he said he probably would make a different decision….
Teresa Blackman and Jeff Thompson, "Oregon Official Drain Reservoir After Man Urinates in It," KGW-TV Portland, April 17, 2014
The three men were caught, citied for trespassing and prohibited from returning to Mount Tabor Park. The 19-year-old was cited for public urination…."Our customers have an expectation that their water is not deliberately contaminated," said David Shaff with the Portland Water Bureau. He acknowledged that the health risk is slight. "We have the ability to meet that expectation while minimizing public health concerns."...
The 38 million gallons--about 760,000 soaks in a bathtub--will be drained into the sewage system, eventually reaching a treatment plant before they are dumped into the Columbia River. [Who knows how many dead bodies lay on the bottom of the river receiving this cleansed water?]
In 2011, the city dumped 8 million gallons, a mere 160,000 baths, from Mount Tabor Reservoir No 1 after a 22-year-old man from Molalla, Oregon admitted to urinating in it. He eventually pleaded guilty to misuse of a reservoir and was sentenced to community service. [Theres a criminal offense in Oregon called misuse of a reservoir?] In that case, it cost the water bureau $32,700, passed on to customers, to drain the reservoir, and that decision caused a wave of backlash from many who said it was an unnecessary response.
Some complained that animals sometimes fall into the reservoir and die without any such action taken. "I think part of it is just that general yuck factor of, 'Yes, we have birds on there all the time, but we don't have people peeing in it all the time,'" Shaff said in defending the 2011 decision. If the area were in drought conditions, he said he probably would make a different decision….
Teresa Blackman and Jeff Thompson, "Oregon Official Drain Reservoir After Man Urinates in It," KGW-TV Portland, April 17, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment