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| 140 million liters of water down the drain |
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| Stonent:
Apparently they city of Portland, Oregon is draining 140 million liters of drinking water because a teenager is suspected of contaminating it with urine. To say nothing of the fact that this is an open air facility where animals and mother nature are free to do the same and even die in it. Oh and .5L of urine is about 3 parts per billion of Urea at this level of dilution. I suspect you receive several hundred times that dose just by flushing a public toilet. http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/draining-reservoir-after-urination-incident-shows-tenuous-grasp-of-science/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+All+content%29 |
| Jarrod Roberson:
Doesn't matter, the majority of the general public are science deniers and live on a "belief" based system, enough of these "believers" called and complained and the path of least resistance is giving in instead of attempting to explain the facts, which would mostly likely lead to some "official" getting a call from a campaign donor and nobody wants to lose their job. This part of the US is rampant with "holistic" medicine believers that believe that "water has memory". |
| NiHaoMike:
Give it to the farmers. They'll appreciate all the water with a trace of "fertilizer" added... |
| rdl:
Pretty stupid I think, but it's not that big of a deal. This time of year in that area they have more water than they know what to do with. They already drain and clean it twice a year. What's weird is that, according to what I've read, it's actually some kind of holding tank, that's completely open, for water already treated and ready to be pumped into the public water system (with no further treatment!). David Shaff, Portland's water bureau administrator, said that the reservoir is not shut down for nature's transgressions. "If we did that, we'd be shutting it off all the time. We fish out animals or things that have blown in all the time." Really? |
| johansen:
--- Quote from: rdl on April 21, 2014, 12:17:51 am ---David Shaff, Portland's water bureau administrator, said that the reservoir is not shut down for nature's transgressions. "If we did that, we'd be shutting it off all the time. We fish out animals or things that have blown in all the time." Really? --- End quote --- humans have been drinking surface water up until 50 years ago. |
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