Standup Zone Forum
General => Random => Topic started by: stoneaxe on April 17, 2014, 09:47:42 AM
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yikes.... :o
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_URINE_IN_RESERVOIR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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When I saw the headline, I thought, "Well, at least Portland's not the only city making idiotic decisions about its reservoirs." That lasted until I read the first word in the article, right before "AP". ::)
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The complete idiocy of this is amazing. Meanwhile...parts of Texas are preparing to turn wastewater into drinking water.
http://www.watertechonline.com/articles/167809-texas-city-begins-unprecedented-use-of-wastewater-for-drinking-water
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Wait till Portland finds out that rain is just a evaporated and reconstituted fish urine solution... ;)
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The complete idiocy of this is amazing. Meanwhile...parts of Texas are preparing to turn wastewater into drinking water.
http://www.watertechonline.com/articles/167809-texas-city-begins-unprecedented-use-of-wastewater-for-drinking-water
They tried that in San Diego, but made the mistake of naming the project "Toilet to Tap" and everyone got turned off by the name. Just needed better marketing. I think these a new proposal to use grey water for irrigation. We sure need it badly.
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They tried that in San Diego, but made the mistake of naming the project "Toilet to Tap" and everyone got turned off by the name. Just needed better marketing. I think these a new proposal to use grey water for irrigation. We sure need it badly.
In San Diego, people prefer Urine over tap water 2-1 in a blind taste test.
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They tried that in San Diego, but made the mistake of naming the project "Toilet to Tap" and everyone got turned off by the name. Just needed better marketing. I think these a new proposal to use grey water for irrigation. We sure need it badly.
In San Diego, people prefer Urine over tap water 2-1 in a blind taste test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6pNJW62xc
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There's more to the story than what appears. Years ago in response to 9/11, Portland started going ahead with covering its open reservoirs, which have been fine for 100 years and are the centerpieces of two beautiful city parks. The water bureau's consultant, who strongly recommended covering them, was also a company that specializes in....covering reservoirs! He and the water bureau claimed that Portland was the largest city in the U.S. with open reservoirs, so would be a certain target for terrorists.
A group I was involved in (with the woman quoted in the article) pointed out that New York City also has open water sources, they're just not in the City limits, so might be a slightly more attractive target than Portland. Also, the amount of poison you'd have to dump in would be on the order of truckloads. Also, anyone in an old house without backflow devices could poison his neighbors from the privacy of his own bathtub.
There was a huge public battle and the City lost. The reservoirs remain open, and hundred of millions of dollars was saved.
BUT the water bureau never recovered, and since then has taken every opportunity to drain reservoirs or issue scary alerts, to "prove" that the open reservoirs are unsafe. One boil-your-water-or-die alert was apparently triggered by a bird landing or peeing near where they did a routine water quality test. As the article said, the reservoirs are full of birds peeing in them. Of course the water comes from a watershed near Mt. Hood, where it starts as rain and snow on dirt, with coyotes and deer and bears touching it.
So it looks like that's what's behind this--the water bureau holding its grudge from being embarrassed years ago.
Of course now there are federal regulations that may eventually cause all the reservoirs everywhere to be covered, but that's another issue...
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I forgot to mention that Portland actually did go ahead with starting an "emergency" covering of one reservoir back then. We stopped it. In fact I think I was the plaintiff.
The crazy thing was that the water going into that reservoir came from the same reservoir that just got drained in the article. We tried to point out that if the idea was to stop people from poisoning the water in a reservoir, it made no sense to cover the reservoir that got its water from the open reservoir, but were ignored.
Another crazy thing was that in its panic, the City hired security patrols that immediately stopped an act of terrorism in progress at one of the reservoirs shortly after 9/11, by a large group wearing black, led by a man with a large sword carrying out an early morning attack. The only problem was it was a tai chi class led by a guy with a foil-wrapped cardboard sword. out for their morning session. They surrendered peacefully.
This is all reality, not a Portlandia episode.
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The complete idiocy of this is amazing. Meanwhile...parts of Texas are preparing to turn wastewater into drinking water.
http://www.watertechonline.com/articles/167809-texas-city-begins-unprecedented-use-of-wastewater-for-drinking-water
Look up Singapore and "reclaimed water", or "NEWater" as they've branded it. Wichita Falls is not the first city in the world to turn to waste water to bridge the gap between demand and supply. That said, this David Shaff character is a flaming moron. Environmental stewardship FAIL. >:(
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Portland has a long history of morons in charge of city government. Maybe most cities do, but these folks are really special. Like most places, the city itself is pretty resilient, or these knuckleheads would have destroyed it long ago.
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The complete idiocy of this is amazing. Meanwhile...parts of Texas are preparing to turn wastewater into drinking water.
http://www.watertechonline.com/articles/167809-texas-city-begins-unprecedented-use-of-wastewater-for-drinking-water
Look up Singapore and "reclaimed water", or "NEWater" as they've branded it. Wichita Falls is not the first city in the world to turn to waste water to bridge the gap between demand and supply. That said, this David Shaff character is a flaming moron. Environmental stewardship FAIL. >:(
I realize Wichita falls is not the first to do it. I've been designing water and wastewater treatment plants most of my life. It wouldn't take much more processing to turn the effluent from any modern wastewater treatment plant to clean drinking water. The discharge from many are cleaner than the waters they discharge to which are about as clean as most reservoirs.
It's all about the marketing. I remember back in the 70's Coke was introducing a new product to compete with 7up....Mello Yello...and was launching it in SoCal. About the same time there was a drought going on. The city started a campaign to reduce water consumption. One of the slogans was "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". Guess what happened to the Mello Yello launch... ;D
It makes more sense with PDX's background info. Petty bureaucrats getting revenge on the populace they are supposed to be serving.
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And yet....
I often enjoy me a good bottle of YooHoo. :o
Since this thread seems headed for the crapper anyways... a great book on the subject is "Flushed: How plumbing saved civilization". Very interesting read, pretty fascinating. Perfect bathroom book!
http://www.amazon.com/Flushed-How-Plumber-Saved-Civilization/dp/0743474090
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Portland is know for being an excellent beer town, so why not refill the reservoir with one of the fine Portland brews? Then, they could change the mission statement to:
"The basic commandment of the Water Bureau is to provide clean, cold and constant BEER to its customers," Beer on tap in every home, Portland!
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More:
http://www.newser.com/story/185548/teen-says-he-didnt-actually-pee-in-portland-reservoir.html
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The paper also reports that the water tested clean of urine-related toxins, but all 38 million gallons will still be dumped.
How has David Schaff NOT been fired? :o
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The paper also reports that the water tested clean of urine-related toxins, but all 38 million gallons will still be dumped.
How has David Schaff NOT been fired? :o
There's a whole world of morons who would agree with his actions. The great majority of people don't make decisions based on facts, they make them based on belief and emotion.
David Schaff--Keeping Portland's precious water clean for you and your family. With a little PR work and some positioning his brave stand against the media could make him our next mayor.