Say What?

Some drunk got caught taking a leak into the reservoir that supplies Portland (OR) its water. As a result, the powers-that-be decided to dump the 8 million gallons of water in the reservoir down the drain.

Because a 21-year-old man was caught on a security camera urinating into a city reservoir, Oregon's biggest city is sending 8 million gallons of treated drinking water down the drain.

Portland officials defended the decision Monday, saying they didn't want to send city residents water laced, however infinitesimally, with urine.

An interesting story, to be sure, with lots of differing views on what the best thing to do would have been. But not that earthshaking. So why am I posting this? Read on...

Public health officials say, however, that urine is sterile in healthy people and that the urine in the reservoir was so diluted - perhaps a half pint in millions of gallons - that it posed little risk.

Some people in the city, in the suburbs and around the world called the flush an overreaction, especially since animals such as ducks contribute waste routinely and, sometimes, die in the water.

The reservoirs are drained twice a year for cleaning, and workers have found animal carcasses, paint cans, construction material, fireworks debris and even the plastic bags people use to scoop up after their dogs, said David Shaff, administrator of the city water bureau.

So with all that in the water, what's all the fuss about a little urine? Especially since the water is going to get treated anyway before it enters the city's water system.

There were, however, two things in this story that gave me pause. The first was this paragraph:

Water from the city's five open air reservoirs, all in parks, goes directly to customers. The reservoirs are due to be replaced by underground storage within a decade, a result of federal requirements.

So the feds are now mandating not only how water must be treated, but how it must be stored? What's wrong with just setting standards for potability and then testing it at the tap? Let the local governments figure out how best to meet those standards. There must be some special interest group that builds underground water storage complexes that's bought off a whole passel of congresscritters.

But the most eye-catching part of the story was the following quote:

"If I lived in Texas, I might have had a different response," he said.

Say what?

My first reaction upon reading that quote was that 'he' is suggesting that we down here drink urine. Well, screw him and the horse hybrid he rode in on. Aside from Lone Star, which used to be a pretty good beer but has gone downhill ever since it was acquired by a yankee brewing company back in the 1970s, we don't drink piss-flavored beverages.

After a little thought, however, it's possible that 'he' is referring to the fact that we're dying down here from drought and wildfires. If that is the case, then he's absolutely right. There's no way that under the current conditions anyone down here would throw away 8 million gallons of water.

I'd like to think that the second interpretation is the correct one, which leads me to say "Please God, send us some rain."