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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on April 17, 2014, 10:33:27 AM

Title: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: MillCreek on April 17, 2014, 10:33:27 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/17/water-reservoir-urination/7814581/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28USATODAY+-+News+Top+Stories%29

I have to say that I disagree with the decision to drain the reservoir, especially when it costs tens of thousands of dollars.  Urine is generally sterile and Bear Grylls seems to drink it without dying.  Not to mention that the reservoirs are open to the sky such that airborne debris, dead birds and bird poop go in them.

It is too bad that the miscreant probably does not have sufficient assets to seize to compensate the water agency for the cost.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Jamisjockey on April 17, 2014, 10:43:49 AM
 :facepalm:

Wow.  Just wow. 
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: AmbulanceDriver on April 17, 2014, 10:49:32 AM
Sadly it's not the first time they've drained the reservoir because some idiot peed in it.   Portland finally quit fighting the feds and is building some covered reservoirs to replace the open air ones at Mt. Tabor.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Ben on April 17, 2014, 10:58:50 AM
That's pretty ridiculous. Somebody needs to drop an ROV in the reservoir and get some footage of all the crap sitting on the bottom and let the whiners see it.

Didn't I read somewhat recently that OR was fining someone for catching rainwater on their land and withholding it from "the public", yet this waste is okie dokie?
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: AmbulanceDriver on April 17, 2014, 11:20:41 AM
Ben, Ben, Ben.    There you go expecting politicians to use logic again.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: brimic on April 17, 2014, 12:42:29 PM
The solution to polution is dilution.  :P
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: KD5NRH on April 17, 2014, 01:01:27 PM
The solution to polution is dilution.

Or just not being dumb enough to use open reservoirs for drinking water that has already been through final treatment.  I mean, really; bottled water has a tamper evident cap.  The bottle of OJ I had this morning came with a tamper evident screw cap and a foil seal under that.  Why the hell would you leave millions of gallons of fully processed drinking water out in the open?
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: fifth_column on April 17, 2014, 01:04:27 PM
Why the hell would you leave millions of gallons of fully processed drinking water out in the open?

Seasoning . . . . .
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: French G. on April 17, 2014, 01:17:42 PM
So if he got a pint into the reservoir it is now diluted to 1 part in 304 million? We're all gonna die. I remember the last time this happened, if I lived there I would go take a whiz everytime the reservoir filled up, bankrupt the municipality, any town that dumb doesn't deserve to live.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: 280plus on April 17, 2014, 01:30:23 PM
Portland ain't too far from me. Ain't that a pisser?  =D
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: 280plus on April 17, 2014, 01:45:10 PM
Oh duh, I thought they meant Portland, CT.  :facepalm:

 :rofl:
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Fly320s on April 17, 2014, 01:57:02 PM
Quote
Not to mention that the reservoirs are open to the sky such that airborne debris, dead birds and bird poop go in them.

Any fish in that pond? Turtles? Nearby wildlife that drink from the reservoir or pee into it?
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Ben on April 17, 2014, 03:01:26 PM
Oh duh, I thought they meant Portland, CT.  :facepalm:

 :rofl:

I figured you were just setting us up for that joke where the one guy says, "This water is cold" and the other guy says, "And deep too!"   :laugh:
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Harold Tuttle on April 17, 2014, 04:14:34 PM
the decay of leaves is a much bigger NOM
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: cambeul41 on April 17, 2014, 05:17:21 PM
I don't recall why I installed a water filter on the kitchen sink –  I still drink out of the bathroom taps rather than walk the length of the house – but this story of storing the water uncovered after final processing has made me happy that I did.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: RocketMan on April 17, 2014, 07:28:44 PM
Why do they engage is such stupidity?  Because it's Portland.  If you have ever lived within shouting distance of that silly place, you would understand.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: charby on April 17, 2014, 07:31:40 PM
Any fish in that pond? Turtles? Nearby wildlife that drink from the reservoir or pee into it?

I was thinking all the duck and goose poop, pretty hard to stop waterfowl from landing on any open body of water.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: 230RN on April 17, 2014, 11:01:36 PM
Jeeze, and they just cleaned it three weeks ago.

Quote
The 19-year-old also was cited for public urination.

If convicted, doesn't that make him a sex offender?  And if so, doesn't make him a prohibited person for firearms ownership?


Quote
The kidney-shaped reservoir, built in 1911, holds 50 million gallons.

The only comment I can make is LOL.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Perd Hapley on April 18, 2014, 12:40:27 AM
I was thinking all the duck and goose poop, pretty hard to stop waterfowl from landing on any open body of water.


Well, you can shoot them on the wing, so they fall into the water all bloody-like, instead of landing.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Jocassee on April 18, 2014, 02:15:58 AM
As a friend once told me over a dram.

"I don't drink water. Fish f*** in it."
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Firethorn on April 18, 2014, 02:38:09 AM
Any fish in that pond? Turtles? Nearby wildlife that drink from the reservoir or pee into it?

As far as I know, yes...

As for the draining it part, another forum I hang out on was pretty universally against draining it for exactly the same reason.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: birdman on April 18, 2014, 08:52:09 AM
Or just not being dumb enough to use open reservoirs for drinking water that has already been through final treatment.  I mean, really; bottled water has a tamper evident cap.  The bottle of OJ I had this morning came with a tamper evident screw cap and a foil seal under that.  Why the hell would you leave millions of gallons of fully processed drinking water out in the open?

This.
While draining is stupid, so is leaving filtered, disinfected, processed drinking water out in the open.

Also, does this huge media push smack anyone else as saying:
"Look, potential terrorists, these reservoirs don't undergo any further treatment [or even monitoring? I don't know] before being sent out in the mains"

Let's see here, something water soluble, with a low dosage, with effects when absorbed through mucous membranes.  Yeah, that's hard to find.

Idiots.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: KD5NRH on April 18, 2014, 09:43:48 AM
Also, does this huge media push smack anyone else as saying:
"Look, potential terrorists, these reservoirs don't undergo any further treatment [or even monitoring? I don't know] before being sent out in the mains"

This, in spades.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: MillCreek on April 18, 2014, 09:50:52 AM
If I recall correctly, this is the reason why the Feds are now mandating covered water reservoirs.  I know that Seattle is slowly converting all of their open reservoirs to underground or otherwise covered.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Balog on April 18, 2014, 05:25:37 PM
How odd, I would have thought the open reservoirs were merely holding areas for the water waiting to be processed and sent out to the mains.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: BlueStarLizzard on April 18, 2014, 06:21:17 PM
It's all been pee at some point or another (or at least a lot of it has)
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: birdman on April 18, 2014, 08:02:08 PM
It's all been pee at some point or another (or at least a lot of it has)

Actually, a very very small amount, unless you count Dino pee.
http://what-if.xkcd.com/74/
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on April 18, 2014, 08:11:08 PM
how often do they drain pools out there?
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: BlueStarLizzard on April 18, 2014, 11:04:08 PM
Actually, a very very small amount, unless you count Dino pee.
http://what-if.xkcd.com/74/

It counts, because it was still pee. :)

Also, that doesn't cover all pee from all animals from the first pee of the first thing to have a bladder till now.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: birdman on April 19, 2014, 12:05:45 AM
It counts, because it was still pee. :)

Also, that doesn't cover all pee from all animals from the first pee of the first thing to have a bladder till now.

True, but due to time present, pee volume per animal, the dinosaurs really make up the bulk of the total.  The biomass pre-Dino was relatively small in comparison, and post Dino was a relatively limited timeframe.  Remember, there is as much time between a T.rex and a stegosaur as there is from a T.rex to now.

But yes, w.r.t. Drinking water that was once pee, if Dino pee counts, then, yes.
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: charby on April 19, 2014, 01:01:17 AM
True, but due to time present, pee volume per animal, the dinosaurs really make up the bulk of the total.  The biomass pre-Dino was relatively small in comparison, and post Dino was a relatively limited timeframe.  Remember, there is as much time between a T.rex and a stegosaur as there is from a T.rex to now.

But yes, w.r.t. Drinking water that was once pee, if Dino pee counts, then, yes.

Theory says H2O was extra terrestrial, so we're drinking pee of space aliens!  
Title: Re: Drain a drinking water reservoir because someone peed in it?
Post by: Perd Hapley on April 19, 2014, 12:50:22 PM
Theory says H2O was extra terrestrial, so we're drinking pee of space aliens!  


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