# Kid pees in reservoir; 38 million gallons to be drained **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347 "2014-04-17T15:39:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/1 "2014-04-17T15:39:47Z")
[Can anyone explain this to me?](http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/us/oregon-teen-urinates-into-water-supply/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) Here are my assumptions, which may of course be incorrect. 1)The reservoir holds water. It flows into the treatment plant, is treated, and pumped to the community. 2)Birds fly over and poop in the water. Airborne contaminants can settle in the water. Other things I can’t think of. We don’t cover the lake to prevent this. Surely a pint of urine -sterile as it leaves its discharge pipe under pressure - can’t render 38 million gallons of water undrinkable or untreatable. No, I don’t to drink your pee, and yes there should be a fence to keep people from contaminating drinking water, but what is the real danger from this incident? ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/2 "2014-04-17T15:43:59Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > yes there should be a fence to keep people from contaminating drinking water, but what is the real danger from this incident? Should there be? In many places the local drinking water reservoir is also used for swimming, fishing, boating, and other recreation. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/3 "2014-04-17T15:44:25Z")
Maybe the water treatment manager is a homeopath. Otherwise, I can’t see any rational reason to drain the reservoir after the college kid drained the snake. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/4 "2014-04-17T15:44:53Z")
Here’s a fixed link: > **[Portland water supply to be flushed after teen urinates into reservoir | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/us/oregon-teen-urinates-into-water-supply/index.html)** > > The city of Portland, Oregon, has been forced to dump millions of gallons of drinking water. Why? Because someone urinated into the water reservoir. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/5 "2014-04-17T15:44:56Z")
The real danger is human stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/6 "2014-04-17T15:45:20Z")
The real danger is the PR disaster from letting folks drink one molecule of human pee. Bird poop is natural, don’t you know 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/7 "2014-04-17T15:52:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Maybe the water treatment manager is a homeopath. It is Portland. OTOH, the water company can probably tell its customers that “like cures like,” and the powerful concentration of urea will have amazing health benefits that will far exceed [the controversial addition of other chemicals](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/22/portland-fluoride-water/2350329/) to the water. ETA: Am I doing my math right? That now the reservoir is contaminated with roughly .003 PPM of pee? ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/8 "2014-04-17T15:55:40Z")
Just don’t believe it, walking round our local water supply there are dozens of fishermen throwing handfuls of maggots in it, gulls craping in it and trout doing what comes natural… ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/9 "2014-04-17T16:07:26Z")
I got the impression that this water is immediately sent out to people’s homes for drinking, yet there is no cover and it’s not a tank. Doesn’t make any sense to me. I think some politician didn’t want to see the headline ‘Entire town drank urine tainted water and nobody told them’. It doesn’t cost much to flush the water so why take a chance at bad PR. I think the guilty teenager should be forced to drink someone else’s urine and see how he likes it. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/10 "2014-04-17T16:22:02Z")
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the same city that has repeatedly rejected fluoridation proposals might, _just might_, not be all that great at performing rational risk assessment when it comes to their drinking water. ETA: Oops, didn’t see you there **Ravenman**. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/11 "2014-04-17T16:23:09Z")
Seems like _deja vue_ to 2011 and 8 million gallons… Portland seems weird. Maybe it’s something in the water. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/12 "2014-04-17T16:26:16Z")
Nobody tell Portland about [W.C. Fields](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/96409-i-don-t-drink-water-fish-fuck-in-it)! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/13 "2014-04-17T16:31:07Z")
One more reason [Cascadia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_%28independence_movement%29) will never happen. Canadians aren’t that stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/14 "2014-04-17T16:49:13Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > ETA: Am I doing my math right? That now the reservoir is contaminated with roughly .003 PPM of pee? No. It is now contaminated with 0.003 ppm _more_ of pee. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/15 "2014-04-17T17:02:32Z")
Kid’s lucky they didn’t make him register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/16 "2014-04-17T17:03:15Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > Surely a pint of urine -sterile as it leaves its discharge pipe under pressure - can’t render 38 million gallons of water undrinkable or untreatable. It’s totally obvious if you read the story as they are only dumping 38 MG of water out of 50 MG, so in order to make that call so accurately one must assume that a controlled double blind study was made to determined that is the dilution factor needed. Once you get to that factor you don’t ever want to get to homeopathic dilution concentrations as science has been unable to explain any effects here, so that could produce weird effects. Much better to keep the concentrations below known contamination levels and above the level where really weird things start happening. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/17 "2014-04-17T17:03:57Z")
Any possibility Portland just _told_ people they’re flushing away 38 million gallons of water to make them feel better about kids peeing in the reservoir? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/18 "2014-04-17T17:04:18Z")
In the [earlier case](http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/16/portland-draining-reservoir-after-man-urinates-in-it/), the water was apparently already treated, and waiting to be pumped directly into peoples houses. I assume the same is true in this case. Its not the type of resevoir the OP is picturing, that is, a storage for water _before its treated_. Does seem kind of odd that Portland doesn’t keep water in tanks or underground after treating. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/19 "2014-04-17T17:06:27Z")
Not a chemist but I’m pretty certain that 38 million gallons would dilute several ounces of urine. Or even several gallons. No story here other than the fact that Portland flushed (pun intended) almost 40 million gallons of relatively clean water for no good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347/20 "2014-04-17T17:10:31Z")
Maybe they’re looking for pirate treasure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-pees-in-reservoir-38-million-gallons-to-be-drained/686347.md?page=2)