• Portland urinates it's reservoir
    50 replies, posted
Every couple of years we get a dumb ass who throws things in the Portland reservoir. Few years ago there was different idiot who pissed in the reservoir, but then claimed ignorance thinking it was a sewage treatment plant, In the middle of a park, in the middle of the city. Though that's the main problem, Mt. Tabor contains the Portland reservoir, and being one of the most popular parks in the city. Though them causing a big stink about a little piss is because they intend to get rid of our open air reservoir system in favor of buried sealed tanks, and any time something gets in the reservoir supporters of the tanks start jumping up and down and say "LOOK IF WE HAD TANKS THIS COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED"
[QUOTE=Xmeagol;44573341]prison is still a little too harsh for that, give them a big fine[/QUOTE] Misdemeanors don't mean automatic jail time, usually it ends up with you having to pay a fine and or doing community service. I would say those punks should pay a hefty fine and do some community service. [QUOTE=Grimhound;44573517]HAS to dump that water? No. The city is being fucking retarded, and anyone involved in that decision should be dragged out and beaten. Fucking imbeciles. [/quote] They are quite dumb for doing something as drastic as that. Just as it has been said above and even in the article itself there's most likely contaminants such as animal droppings and other things that usually get into water when exposed outside. Why should the introduction of human urine suddenly mean that they should dump everything? I would hope that they filter whatever leaves that reservoir before it reaches people's homes because the contaminants that would be present from day to day exposure would still make that water somewhat filthy. So if it's filtered then piss wouldn't make it through that process. Fucking idiots.
[QUOTE=beanhead;44573716]Well to play devil's advocate most of our water comes from the [URL="http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/29784"]Bull Run Watershed[/URL] so they just fill it back up with water from that and then dump the old water, in the Willamette river most likely, which would probably increase the quality of water in the river by like .5% for a day at most.[/QUOTE] I've pissed into the Sandy River therefore i guess i've pissed in every reservoir.
Where exactly did they dump all the water?
[QUOTE=EvacX;44571871]This guy raises a good point. Seriously, I bet there are much worse things in the water than that. It's disgusting, but not [I]really[/I] that much of a problem to warrant such drastic measures. A little piss diluted in 143,000,000 liters of water, who the fuck cares?[/QUOTE] Someone pissed in it, and word about it got out. So they had to do something or else people would start freaking out for no reason. It's not like it's filtered and then stored there to never be filtered again, open to anything airborne in the meantime
[QUOTE=MaddaCheeb;44573383]I don't know why we still keep open reservoirs like that. They're being exposed to a whole bunch of shit in the air, bird shit from the sky, and other stuff in the environment. At the very least, they should have some form of roof over it to protect it.[/QUOTE] Just strategically place some cars around it, the birds will be helpless to resist shitting on them instead. Problem solved.
[QUOTE=Grimhound;44573517]HAS to dump that water? No. The city is being fucking retarded, and anyone involved in that decision should be dragged out and beaten. Fucking imbeciles. It's not like the West Coast is prone to fucking droughts or anything. Anything he had would be dead or diluted to the point where it's not an issue. This is inexcusable waste.[/QUOTE] calm down holy shit like two days of rain will fill the thing up again and it rains almost every day. last time i walked by only one of the basins was full to begin with anyway. it's really not that large of a reservoir.
this things need to be closed off and garded and inside a room of some kind/type because tere fucking importance.
Wait- So an open reservoir where they hold water.. okay.. Do they filter/treat the water AT ALL before they send it to your tap?
I mis-read.... I thought it said "Portman urinates in a reservoir" I was disapointed when i found out it was not Natalie....
[QUOTE=counterpo0;44572256]I wouldn't fucking care as long as its purified and cleaned properly. Wasting all the water for shame.[/QUOTE] They should be glad they have water. Our local aquifer is draining like mad now that all these farms and dairies have moved out here. "Hey you know what's a great idea?" "No, what?" "Let's pay farmers and dairymen lodes of emone to come out here and use up all of our ground water even though we only average 2" a year of rainfall!" "Oh yes most excellent idea!"
[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;44574859]this things need to be closed off and garded and inside a room of some kind/type because tere fucking importance.[/QUOTE] well, it [I]is[/I] the northwest and it [I]is[/I] the spring, AKA it is literally constantly raining. it isn't like this won't be full by the end of a day or two anyways. if this were somewhere where water wasn't constantly coming down from the sky i am certain that they would keep it. we kind of take water for granted on the coast side of the north west still, stupid for them to dump it.
[QUOTE=Keys;44574879]Wait- So an open reservoir where they hold water.. okay.. Do they filter/treat the water AT ALL before they send it to your tap?[/QUOTE] Oregon has great tap water. There's a large fence around this thing, I don't know why it's not better guarded nor how well it's guarded because I don't venture over that way too often (my family did once live on Mt. Tabor though). Does have quite the fence around it though. [t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Mt_Tabor_Park_reservoir_-_Portland_Oregon.jpg[/t]
I'm seeing a lot of misinformation in this thread about Portland's water supply so I thought I should clear somethings up. I did a 6 month internship at the Portland Water Bureau about 2 years ago and have a lot of insight into this. For starters, there are a lot of people talking about this not really mattering as long as the water is filtered before it reaches your faucet. The problem is that any water in a reservoir has already passed through the Lusted Hill treatment facility and is considered by the water bureau as clean. It does not get re-filtered or further treated before it reaches you. Period; end of story. This means that if something happens to the water in the reservoir, regardless of how small or insignificant it might seem, it could easily cascade and blow up into something big. So while emptying the reservoir may seem like an overreaction, it's basically the water bureau refusing to take any chances. For more info on the reservoirs and the water treatment process, see the following: [URL]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/WATER/article/330807[/URL] [URL]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/WATER/article/327648[/URL] I feel the need to really hammer home the point that reservoir water is not and will never be re-treated after reaching a reservoir, so I'm going to quote the first paragraph of the first link. [quote]A finished drinking water reservoir contains water that has been through all the treatment steps required by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and can be delivered to the public without further treatment.[/quote] Another point to make is that Portland literally has some of the cleanest water on the west coast and takes the cleanliness of its water supply VERY seriously. When something happens to the water supply anywhere along the line it is a MASSIVE deal for the water bureau. Even the smallest infraction or incident is regarded as potentially serious. One example I remember from my time with the water bureau was when a security camera caught some bitch flinging a used diaper over the fence and into a reservoir. Within hours there were people onsite taking test samples of the water checking for contamination. But before the samples had even come back he decision was made to drain and scrub the reservoir, just to be safe. I'm not sure what happened to the woman; I'd hope they tracked her down and she was arrested and/or fined. Info on cleanliness can be found here: [URL]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/article/244716[/URL] Lastly, the process of draining and refilling the reservoir costs almost nothing. This is in large part because the vast majority of the system is run by gravity. In effect, from the source at the Bull Run Watershed to the City of Portland is one giant aqueduct. The reservoirs are filled and emptied on the principle of gravity. Save for emergency backups, there are almost no pumps or pumping stations throughout the entirety of the water system. This means it costs close to nothing to move water from the source to the city to your tap. Scrubbing the reservoir before refilling it does incur a cost, but not as much as you would think (aside: I can't seem to find public documents stating how much the water bureau spends on cleaning the reservoirs annually). More info is here: [URL]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/WATER/48904[/URL]
[QUOTE=DOG-GY;44572264]wouldnt they clean the water before doing anything with it anyways??? i would be shocked if that isnt the case[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=FurrehFaux;44572798]But isn't water purified in the plant before being sent off to cities?[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=OvB;44573057]Most of Texas's water supply comes from man made lakes which people live on, play on, piss, shit, and die in. Is one kid passing really an issue? Is their water not filtered at all?[/QUOTE] Nope. [QUOTE]The open reservoirs hold water that already has been treated and goes directly into mains for distribution to customers. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE] The [B]kidney-shaped[/B] reservoir, built in 1911, holds 50 million gallons.[/QUOTE] They were asking for it.
Oh, so this is why my water tasted slightly off last night.
[QUOTE=Frost 31;44577025]I'm seeing a lot of misinformation in this thread about Portland's water supply so I thought I should clear somethings up. I did a 6 month internship at the Portland Water Bureau about 2 years ago and have a lot of insight into this. For starters, there are a lot of people talking about this not really mattering as long as the water is filtered before it reaches your faucet. The problem is that any water in a reservoir has already passed through the Lusted Hill treatment facility and is considered by the water bureau as clean. [B]It does not get re-filtered or further treated before it reaches you.[/B] Period; end of story. This means that if something happens to the water in the reservoir, regardless of how small or insignificant it might seem, it could easily cascade and blow up into something big. So while emptying the reservoir may seem like an overreaction, it's basically the water bureau refusing to take any chances. ...[/QUOTE] That's concerning, is that a common practice? You've got nothing to stop contaminants entering your drinking water supply then. Over here we have the same kind of "filter then sit in a reservoir" setup, but we cover ours so they don't have contaminates falling into them, so we don't need to worry about filtering them.
[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;44577851]That's concerning, is that a common practice? You've got nothing to stop contaminants entering your drinking water supply then. Over here we have the same kind of "filter then sit in a reservoir" setup, but we cover ours so they don't have contaminates falling into them, so we don't need to worry about filtering them.[/QUOTE] I really can't speak for other cities or water districts, but I do know that Portland's reservoir situation is literally a hold over from from when they were first building the water system more than a century ago. The reservoirs at Mt. Tabor and Washington Park were constructed in the early 1890s. When they expanded these sites and built new reservoirs, the additions were mostly modeled after what had already been done. The mentality was something like, "this has worked so far, there's no reason to change it". Save for updating systems and generally bringing things up to code, there really wasn't a major overhaul of the reservoir network until around ~2004. That's more than 100 years after the first reservoirs were constructed. It needs to be noted that in those 100 years there had been no major or minor outbreaks of anything in Portland linked to contaminated water. It may be old, but the system worked. In 2004 they finished the Open Reservoir Replacement Project, which was a study of the reservoirs. I don't know where you can find the full report anymore but it basically recommended replacing all open air reservoirs with covered and underground ones. Today the Water Bureau and the City of Portland have spent the past few years constructing several new underground reservoirs as well as covering existing reservoirs. The plan is to have all reservoirs that hold and provide drinking water be completely covered and/or underground by 2020. More info: [url]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/article/352745[/url] [url]http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/article/330807[/url]
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.