Here's How Long That Teen Would Have to Pee in the Portland Reservoir to Make It Unsafe to Drink

slate ^ | April 17, 2014 | Laura Helmuth

[Michael.SF.]

How many times would that teenager have to pee in a Portland reservoir to produce a urine concentration approaching the EPA’s limit for nitrates in drinking water? About 3,333 times.

But of course urine is 95 percent water. (If you’re ever trapped in rubble after a natural disaster, go ahead and drink it.) Only about 2 percent of urine is nitrogen-rich urea. That means he’d have to urinate 166,666 times for the concentration of urea to approach that of the EPA’s limit for nitrates in drinking water.

Since most animals, including idiot teenaged show-offs, take about 21 seconds to urinate, that means he’d have to urinate constantly for 3,500,000 seconds, or about 40 days. Hopefully, he’d have friends constantly supplying him with tasty Portland microbrews.

[Hot Tabasco]

If the boy was on drugs he might make someone high not sick.

No mention of the bat crap, bird poop, possom piss, coon crap, deer drops, bass sperm, and all sorts of algae that make people sick...........

And you're concerned about this kid's peeing in the pond?..........

[Michael.SF.]

From the original article linked to above:

"The basic commandment of the Water Bureau is to provide clean, cold and constant water to its customers," bureau administrator David Shaff said Wednesday. "And the premise behind that is we don't have pee in it."

The open reservoirs hold water that has already been treated and goes directly into mains for distribution to customers.

The urine poses little risk - animals routinely deposit waste without creating a public health crisis - but Shaff said he doesn't want to serve water that was deliberately tainted.

[bikerman]

Guess they better drain the gulf of Mexico been peeing in that for the past 32 years living here in Florida and fishing out their.

[Hot Tabasco]

The open reservoirs hold water that has already been treated

Then let me repeat myself, no mention of the bat crap, bird poop, possom piss, coon crap, deer drops, bass sperm, and all sorts of algae that make people sick that is contaminating that pee pond...........

This is beyond ridiculous..........

[Manic_Episode]

Famously. Btw, UFC event tonight free on FOX.

[EEGator]

Deliberate urine is like totally different from accidental urine...chemically speaking.

[EEGator]

Thanks for the heads up. Will our resident FR UFC hater be posting tonight?

[joethedrummer]

Does ANYONE realize just HOW many birds pee and crap into these open reservoirs?? Daily??

Sheesh..

And we DO realize that these things put the water through PURIFICATION systems before piping them into homes, right?

Nevertheless, how many people still refuse to drink from the tap and buy ‘bottled’ water 100% of the time?

[SES1066]

Demonstration of Government / Bureaucrat natural tendency towards waste.

Biggest fear of a government drone, aka bureaucrat; being accused of a ‘preventable’ deleterious action. Such things damage careers, patrons and subordinates. The drone’s solution is to use taxpayer dollars to eliminate all possible tort situations.

Tort Lawyers thrive on finding emotive causes that have some connection to actual events (not true for all torts, some are actually REAL!) So a Downs Syndrome child is born to a mother who drank water from this source - Ca-Ching $$$! (see Sen. John Edwards (Democrat VP Candidate 2004) - Tort Lawyer extra-odinaire!)

Real world facts and causes are immaterial in this case, read the history of silicon breast implants as an example. Taxpayer money is easier to get than a replacement job that requires real work.

[bicyclerepair]

Here in SFL, the tap water is green from decaying organic matter in it. Watch a pool fill up before it’s chemically treated. You can hardly see the bototm.

I have a 3-stage water filter under the sink for drinking water. Put a glass of that next to the tap water (ea in white cups) and you can even see the difference in just a few ounces of water.

[GeronL]

Don’t fish and other animals live in that water and pee and poop all the time?

[GeronL]

Hopefully the underage person would not be drinking alcohol as the author suggests

[mountainlion]

We all know what fish do in the water and giardia is another problem.

[mountainlion]

The open reservoirs hold water that has already been treated

Most treated water is kept in a sterile facility not an open area.

[Hoodat]

‘Reason’ doesn’t work on liberals.

[Hoodat]

Don’t fish and other animals live in that water and pee and poop all the time?

But that's different. Liberals consider those other animals to be higher life forms than humans.

[Michael.SF.]

the article does talk about that aspect as well.

[Michael.SF.]

The reservoir appears to be ‘grandfathered’ in. It is scheduled for replacement with a storage tank.

[Manic_Episode]

I will ping him.

[Rodamala]

So how long would the Ypsilanti Mystery Pooper have to squat to have a turd go all the way down the playground slide?