It’s not like they can just ship the water down to Southern California.
Correct, it is treated first, then pumped into the reservoirs, but there’s no further treatment between there and the faucet. Best not to think about it too much. In reality, it’s still better quality than a lot of groundwater supplies.
So, they should forcibly close every business that relies on potable water? Why should restaurants have to close because the water department is afraid of cooties?
It’s stupid and wasteful, but this isn’t really relevant. There isn’t a nationwide market for water. Portland just has a lot more water than other places, so it can afford to just throw a lot out because of superstition. It’s not good but it’s not the horror that it would be in other places.
Okay, where does it say not to pee in the water, huh? Does it say that? HUH?
Anyway, according to the article I saw (in HuffPo, IIRC), it’s going to cost them $35,000 to drain the pool, sanitize it, and refill it. Yes, they are going to get out their on their hands and knees with scrub brushes and [del]fluorine[/del] Clorox (or whatever) and scrub it clean.
The user comments following the article were largely along the same lines as here in this thread: What the BFD? It’s already full of bird crap, dead critters, dirt that falls in, whatever. WTF difference does a few drops of human pee matter? It does look like TPTB are responding largely to the public PR needs and the ick factor.
The citations issued (traspassing and peeing in public) sound like minor things. Wonder if the water district is going to send the parents a bill for the $35000?
Maybe they already drain and “sanitize” it on a regular basis, and this just means moving it up?
ETA: This (PDF!!1!) says that they drain the reservoirs to perform repairs every six months:
So the entire reservoir has become only one molecule away from human pee, right?
Just don’t go out on a limb.
And where are they draining the water TO??? Don’t the communities downstream have any say in this? Or will they have to drain their reservoir too? You know, down that slippery slope.
They could have just made Corona beer.
If it’s a smaller body of water exposed to the elements then it still gets bird shit and every other environmental bit of ick.
I’m going to cry fowl on this bit of logic.
Not to worry, according to this (caution: auto-play audio ad embedded in the article) the water will be dumped into the sewage system and run through the sewage treatment plant before it is released into the Columbia River.
The more I look into this, the more underwhelmed I become. In addition to the draining being a semiannual thing, this isn’t a huge amount of water compared to what the city deals with. The city delivers around a 80 million gallons a day in the winter and 120 million gallons a day in the summer. (PDF). On one day in 2009-2010 they put out 178 million gallons, or one of these reservoirs every five hours.
It’s still stupid but it’s not the wanton waste I was imagining.
According to USA Today (caution: auto-play audio ad), the spring semiannual draining had been performed just three weeks ago.
Well, that’s pretty stupid then.
Did they at least let people pee into it then? Maybe if they had a free day twice a year it would cut down on this.
They do NOT want to know what boaters have been doing around the Chicago water system intakes for decades.
But, to be fair, the water is treated after the intakes take it in. In the case of the reservoir, the water is not treated between the time it is placed in the reservoir and it is distributed to the residents of Portland.
I’m not saying this wasn’t a stupid over-reaction. I’m just pointing out the difference.
URINATION UPDATE!
“I didn’t piss in the fucking water,” Dallas Swonger said in an interview with Vocativ.
Junior claims he peed “near” the water.
And says what I suspected all along…
The teen also weighed in on the city’s decision to flush the 38 million gallons. “Yeah, it’s fucking retarded dude,” he said. “Like, how they can do that? How can they be like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna flush all that water.’ Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I’ve see hella dead animals in there. Like dead squirrels and shit. I mean, really, dude?”
Yeah, but how many times have people done it without getting caught? 
Cute article in Slate: Here’s How Long That Teen Would Have to Pee in the Portland Reservoir to Make It Unsafe to Drink.
Columnist estimates: would have to pee non-stop for 40+ days to contaminate water to EPA safety limits.
Top comment by “Sudden and Impactful”:
From that link:
Nice one, USA Today.
Oh, this makes me sad. Yes, it has now been 20+ years since I lived in the area and I’ve spent most of that in the Bay Area, but it would me to my emotional core to see “hella” uttered north of Redding.
The idiotic debate over whether or not to cover the reservoirs has been going on for years. Nowadays it’s a cost issue, but there are still the “Friends of the Reservoirs” (how Portlandia can you get?) who, for some reason, see covering these as destroying something historic and beloved. :rolleyes: Portland’s tap water is very good, but I prefer mine without dead animal seasoning.