8 Million Gallons of Water Drained from Reservoir after Man Urinates In It: (absolutely crazy!)

The operation is costing the state's taxpayers $36,000 and was ordered after Joshua Seater, 21, was caught on a security camera relieving himself in the pristine lake

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Health experts said the incident would not have caused any harm to people in the city of Portland, who are supplied with drinking water from the reservoir. They said the average human bladder holds only six to eight ounces, and the urine would have been vastly diluted

But David Shaff, an administrator at the Portland Water Bureau, defended the decision to empty the lake. "There are people who will say it's an over reaction. I don't think so. I think what you have to deal with here is the 'yuck' factor," "I can imagine how many people would be saying 'I made orange juice with that water this morning.' "Do you want to drink pee? Most people are going to be pretty damn squeamish about that." he said.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk...

Makes me want to say WHAT THE HELL! This Mr. Shaff has some issues I think. Deep routed issues.

Absolute waste of value water-over a little bit of pee! How does he think the water gets to the dam area. By passing through mountains etc. Dead animals in water ways, all kinds of waste. That's why we treat it.....

I don't have any experience in this field but to me this just seems crazy to dump all that water. What do they do when they find an animal dead in it? Fish? hmmmmm?

Can anyone of you make sense of this act? The dumping not the peeing.

Political Correctness? Extreme Nature Lovers? Eco-Manics in charge now?

Silliness. Fire the fool.
Fish do worse than pee in it.

I had heard about this story, just about the guy urinating in the lake...

But draining it completely? Wow... Sure its disgusting, but like the article states... 8 million GALLONS vs 1 cup of pee?

Does that also mean they dont treat or clean the water one bit before pumping it into peoples homes?

Arent there animals/fish etc that also urinate in the water?

Where is the water being emptied into?

Why cant people just boil the water...

And making orange juice with tap water? Dont you make it out of... oranges, and juice them?

so many questions... what the heck, why!?!?!?

Yea that guy must be some kind of a subnormal unfortunate waste of water.

This is insane, worse things
in the water than pee. All
that money that could have
been spent for a much better
cause, I'm sure.

I hope the guys who think drinking urine is good for you don't see this.

What about all the dead creatures that decompose in this body of water... Or the multitudes of birds and other creatures that excrete over/in it.

Man... Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink...

madness..

Originally posted by morder1
And making orange juice with tap water? Dont you make it out of... oranges, and juice them?

lmao, I completely skipped over that part.

I'm guessing he means they water it down. Blech.

Son: "Yuck, this orange juice tastes like cats piss..."
Mum: "Umm, well........."

Wth!? Children drink pool water at city/public pools all the time, they are fine, and I can promise you the pee levels are way higher than this lake. How stupid is this man and the people who allowed this to ne done?

How do they plan on refilling it? Because I have news for him. When he goes to turn on the wster hose, it wont work...

reply to post by anon72


Working in a water plant, more than likely they would TREAT THE WATER before it goes to the houses. You don't store water in an open reservoir and then pump it directly to consumers. There must be a treatment process that filters out the impurities. Reverse osmosis would work to get rid of radiation..don't you think it would work on urine as well? The guy who is draining this is a moron and a waste of space. He should be fired.

It almost sounds like they used this guy peeing in the lake as an excuse to drain it for some other reason. Not conspiratorial or anything but maybe it was a way to get the money to do something they been wanting to do and used this incident as the sole reason.
It just strikes me odd why they would do such a stupid thing. How many could have thought that this was a good idea?

actually..

there was a good sized thread on this already..

and even so..

the guy who decided to drain the lake was declared moron in that thread also..

From the Portland Water twitter stream....

You can write the Administrator directly at [email protected] and share your views with him directly.

In my opinion it is a nonsensical waste of water. They should bottle it and sell it as "Liquid Relief" or some other such stupid marketing gimmick to all those trendy Paris Hilton elite types.

I don't believe this trype!

David Shaff needs Shafting. He should be sent the Bill.

Surely that's why they treat the water before it gets to your tap!!!

What about all the insects, flies, beetles, dead moths, dead fish, animal dung etc

Complete and Utter Madness - and they say there's a water shortage.

Originally posted by quedup
I don't believe this trype!

David Shaff needs Shafting. He should be sent the Bill.

Surely that's why they treat the water before it gets to your tap!!!

What about all the insects, flies, beetles, dead moths, dead fish, animal dung etc

Complete and Utter Madness - and they say there's a water shortage.

The Guy must be bored - give him something to do!

Doesn't even make sense; Saying the only "pollutant" in the water was human urine? If that water comes from the Columbia River, you bet there's a lot of pollutants much more concerning than urine. Oh right his paycheck must have been bigger to drain the water.

Bear Grylls sure would be offended..

Seriously though this is the biggest waste. Ten gallons would have probably made it completely unnoticeable. As someone also said, they treat the water as well.

Can anyone honestly say they havent peed in the pool? How about while swimming at the lake? Birds dump in it.fish do far worse then die and rot.The guy that urinated in the lake should be given a ticket for public urination and the idiot that ordered the waste of resorses Fired..

reply to post by dreamingawake

Portland's drinking water does not come from the Columbia River - it comes from the Bull Run which feeds into the reservoirs...

reply to post by granpabobby


What about the mud that will be stired up ? The lake will be muddy water for who knows how long. how about polutants and heavy metals that will be stired up ? Could this be the underlieing reason they are draining the lake ?

As a side note: I find this interesting that the story comes from a UK paper - No one thought it more appropriate to dig up a local news source with local comments/perspectives?

ETA: the twitter feed helps and for those who were discussing filtering the water, it doesn't happen. It's filtered as it comes down from the watershed and is not treated once it reaches the reservoir.