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| Mt. Tabor Reservoir. Image Credit: File Photo – The Oregonian |
Here in California, the Delta Smelt, a non-indigenous (imported) fish, is given grand reverence over the human need to grow and harvest food for living and profit. We are very familiar with the over-reach of power over common sense in the pursuit of progressive political perception.
Just this week in Portland Oregon, it was discovered via a review of surveillance camera video, a teen-aged male was captured emptying his bladder into the Mount Tabor Reservoir, an open air facility established during the period of 1894 through 1911 and used to hold a portion of the city of Portland’s water fed into the home delivery water resource system.
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| Mt. Tabor Reservoir. Image Credit: KBOO.FM |
This excerpted and edited from Oregon Public Broadcasting -
Portland To Empty Water In Mt. Tabor Reservoir After Contamination
OPB | April 16, 2014 1:42 p.m. | Updated: April 17, 2014 6:39 a.m. | Portland
The Portland Water Bureau was forced to shut down one of its Mount Tabor reservoirs early Wednesday. A trespasser urinated into one of the reservoirs.
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Bureau officials say about 50 million gallons of drinking water were isolated at Reservoir No. 5. None of the contaminated supply was distributed to customers.
David Shaff is with the Portland Water Bureau. He says water quality samples have been taken for safety reasons.
“I’m still going to empty the reservoir, clean it, and re-fill it. And the reason I’m going to do that is because I have customers who have an expectation that I’m not going to deliberately deliver water that has been contaminated by someone peeing into the reservoir,” Shaff said.
“The basic commandment of the Water Bureau is to provide clean, cold and constant water to its customers,” Shaff said Wednesday. “And the premise behind that is we don’t have pee in it.”
The open reservoirs hold water that has already been treated and goes directly into mains for distribution to customers.
The urine poses little risk — animals routinely deposit waste without creating a public health crisis — but Shaff said he doesn’t want to serve water that was deliberately tainted.
“There is at least a perceived difference from my perspective,” Shaff said. “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.”
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The three unidentified men were cited for trespassing after being stopped at the site early Wednesday morning. One was also cited for public urination.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to pursue criminal charges.
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The reservoir is one of five the city is in the process of replacing with underground storage to comply with federal regulations.
Floy Jones, co-founder of the group Friends of the Reservoirs, criticized the decision to drain the reservoir, saying there’s no evidence any urine reached the water and it wouldn’t harm anyone if it did.
“It’s extremely wasteful,” she said.
In June 2011, the city drained a 7.5 million-gallon reservoir at Mount Tabor in southeast Portland. This time, 38 million gallons from a different reservoir at the same location will be discarded after a 19-year-old was videotaped in the act.
The man who urinated into Portland’s water supply in June 2011 eventually pleaded guilty to misuse of a reservoir and was sentenced to community service.
[Reference Here]
This is another situation where common sense and the progressive application of power collide in the wasteful pursuit of perception. The cost to drain and re-clean the reservoir (that had its bi-annual cleaning process completed about three weeks ago according to Water Bureau records) is referenced in Wikipedia as being around $36,000 for the 2011 incident.
Has anyone around here heard of Bear Grylls? Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter and is best known for his internationally syndicated television series Man vs. Wild, also known originally as Born Survivor.
On his program, he was famous for a survivalist meme of showing people that urine is, when all else is not available, a hydrating substance. He would show that one would not die, or become ill, in drinking pee straight out of a container in order to keep alive and to not having bodily functions shut down due to a lack of water for a short period of time.
Does it taste good straight – NO, it tastes as one would expect pee to taste.
Can one taste human urine when it is diluted in, say, EIGHT MILLION GALLONS OF WATER?
A better question that should be asked is – what percentage of contamination does this known human urine waste cast-off represent to the overall unmeasured wildlife/animal waste cast-off (urine and solid waste sewage) of all birds, bats, rats, squirrels, dogs, cats, and etc. that make it into the Portland water supply through the feeder system and the reservoirs as well … before delivery into the system?
‘Infinitesimal’ is the word that comes to mind.
Save the $36,000.00+ of public money on the perception of power and show real power through the education of all who use the public water system that employs open air reservoirs on this Oblate Spheroid. This is still a water system, without filtration, that will always be classified until changes are made, as … “Gone Wild.”
