Oregon Man Urinates in Reservoir

(Portland, Oregon) A 21-year-old man was captured on video as he urinated in Portland's open-air reservoir. As a result, Portland Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff decided to flush 7.8 million gallons of water.

Urine is pretty sterile chemically speaking, said Dave Stone, an assistant professor in toxicology at Oregon State University who specializes in chemical contaminants in water.

"It's inappropriate behavior. But how many animals are doing that or birds?" he said. "I don't want to second-guess the city, but I can't think of anything chemically that would have me be concerned."

But Chris Wanner, director of operations for the Water Bureau, said he was worried -- though less about the urine than about unknown items thrown into the water by a group of five people who hung around Mount Tabor early Wednesday.

Even so, Portland's five open reservoirs are susceptible to dead rodents, birds or bird poop. Water quality is tested, but reservoirs aren't drained because of dead animals.

"We look at that as part of the business of open reservoirs," Wanner said.

Draining the reservoir is estimated to take several days, costing in the tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and disposal charges.