Posted on 02/09/2015 3:50:22 PM PST by doug from upland
A mid-level San Francisco water manager is under fire for urinating into a reservoir thats a source of drinking water for 2.5 million Bay Area customers.
City Hall sources tell us that Martin Sanchez, a $111,000-a-year maintenance planner for the Public Utilities Commission, will probably be suspended without pay for the maximum five days allowed as a result of the Jan. 6 incident at the Priest Reservoir in the Sierra foothills near Sonora.
Priest is one of four holding reservoirs for San Francisco and other Bay Area cities that receive Hetch Hetchy water.
Utilities commission spokesman Tyrone Jue said the 674 million-gallon reservoir had been completely drained for maintenance when Sanchez used it as a urinal. Although the urine posed no health danger, Jue said, his action was not acceptable.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.sfgate.com ...
The job where we had to prevent our sledge-hammer splatter from post 40 has up their website:
The City of Seattle is required by law to maintain a clean drinking water supply.
To that end the City restricts public access and management is guided by a Habitat Conservation Plan. The Cedar River Watershed is an unfiltered surface water supply which produces some of the best water in the world.
Cedar River water is:
Screened to remove debris
Chlorinated to remove microbial contaminants, such as bacteria and viruses
Fluoridated for dental health protection
Ozonated for odor and taste improvements and Giardia control
Ultraviolet disinfected to disable microbial contaminants such as chlorine resistant Cryptosporidium
Supplemented with lime for pH adjusted corrosion control to minimize lead leaching in older plumbing systems.
Cedar River water meets or exceeds all federal standards for drinking water. Daily, more than 50 samples are tested before and after treatment at Seattle Public Utilities water quality lab for a variety of waterborne disease indicators, minerals, chemicals and contaminants.
If you breathe in a public restroom you’re likely ingesting more urine than you’d get from this idiot’s action.
well he does work for the pee u c!
I grew up in the High Desert in CA near one of the largest aqueducts in the country. I once heard of some youths having parties in the area who would then relieve themselves in said aqueduct.
I’m truly surprised that anyone in Los Angeles is still alive!
If I boiled or field treated the water from that lake I'd drink it. Utility processing is even more extensive. My septic tank and drain field is in my front yard a few feet from the house and my 180 ft well is behind my house about 6 ft but cased to 80 ft. I had it tested it is as pure as can be.
Reality? Which poses a greater health risk? A patient drinking water from that reservoir properly treated which most patients do so daily? Or is it a Staph infection from a hospital including the OR or nursing home environment? I know that answer and so do you. The water is far less likely to do any harm.
As a kid back in the 1960's and 70's I swam in creeks and lakes that had every thing a person could imagine draining off into them from farms. It was rural farm country. I also swam in city swimming pools where hundreds of kids swam in at the pool. I survived and to be honest I can't remember one kid getting sick from it.
Obviously, it’s not the science. Please! I understand that. It’s the appearance that is the problem. Think about what this says to people that use that water. It has nothing to do with urine in the water. Giveme a little credit. What is the appearance to anyone involved in this situation? Geesh!
I don't think it's quite the same thing. And what is urine, after all? Take the water out of it and what do you have left, and in what quantity? Measure out those components in dry form, sprinkle them in a multi-million gallon reservoir and nobody would get worked up, so long as they didn't know they originated with urine. Urine is looked upon as disgusting, and people react emotively to the idea of consuming it, even in amounts so small as to be nonexistent. It's very much like the "pink slime" scandal, which pretty much shut down a viable industry.
Hold the phone! “the Priest Reservoir” Is this an impermissible mixture of religion and politics? And in San Francisco of all places.
Mr. Please see #46.
I pissed in Poland Spring.
Makes you wonder how many people take a whizz in the water supply and don’t get caught.
My 4 member household hasn't had a drink of tap water in years, neither do we use it for coffee or cooking.
Several years back, we filled our large above ground pool with municipal water and within just a few days it turned black. Water official told me that we were on a new well and it was heavy with magnesium and that it was perfectly safe to drink.
No thanks.
Good point. It makes it difficult to believe that water quality is job one.
Sorry about that. But truth is people fish on boats all day long on lakes and urine goes over the side usually by the beer to time fishing ratio LOL.
On the other end of that spectrum I got a royal chewing out from a game warden for cleaning fish in a river and leaving the guts there in the water. He told me I was polluting the stream. I said no I'm putting nutrition back into the river which will feed fish and wildlife and not wasting any portion of the fish in doing so all goes to a useful purpose. He calmed down and in a quieter voice said I know too that but people call in complaining saying it's polluting.
The same mentality that freak over a person whizzing into a nearly three quarter billion lake complain about fish guts in a river which within a few hours would have been ingested into the grand circle of life and nature.
Our nation has substituted common sense for media sensationalism and sad to say a lack of education as to how nature and mans technology work. The mindset making a media issue about this man would sent their kids to a public pool and never thing twice.
I know better than to drink from a creek or unknown untreated sources. I will drink untreated water straight from springs only where I am at the head of it where it comes from the ground and I have reasonable knowledge of what lies above stream. City folk calling themselves environmentalist just don't understand them things LOL.
Did he Pee in the dirty side or in the clean side? Is he a conservative . . . because I’m sure nothing would be said if it was Jesse Jackson.
I regularly wash up in the either place (Summer, of course, after a run) with shampoo and soap. No one comments about Lake Superior because ... No one sees me, I'm in the woods.
But apparently a pharmacist, no less, found out about this on the reservoir with flowing water and said something to someone.
I explained to the lady (who should have known better) about the concept of the volume of distribution. She apologized, I don't think because of any understanding but rather because she worked for me and had to fill my prescriptions.
Again, my point had nothing to do with science and everything to do with appearances.
Sorry if there was a misunderstanding.
Oh they meant Judas Priest. /sarcasm. LOL
Yes, I saw it. Your meaning wasn’t immediately clear. It was the manager’s general attitude about things, rather than any actual harm he did. Although I think that while the suspension was proper, flushing the reservoir wouldn’t be.
Correct. I apologize for any misunderstanding I may have caused.
On a somewhat related note, one must ask the question:
“If a centipede a pint, and a velocipede a quart, how much would a precipice?”
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