116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Man urinates in water, city flushes 8M gallons
TIM FOUGHT, Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon city is flushing 8 million gallons of city drinking water because a man was caught on camera urinating in one of its reservoirs.
Water from the city's five open air reservoirs goes directly to customers. A city official says he didn't want to serve them urine in the water.
Critics call that an overreaction, saying that animals routinely defecate and urinate in the reservoirs and, sometimes, die in them.
Public health officials say urine is sterile in healthy people and that the urine in the reservoir was so diluted that it posed little health risk.
Officials say it'll cost ratepayers less than $8,000 - the charge to treat it as sewage. The 21-year-old man has not been charged.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
This spot at the Mt Tabor number 1 reservoir Monday June 20, 2011, is where a 21-year-old man was seen on surveillance video urinating into the reservoir in Portland, Ore. City officials have decided to drain the reservoir at the cost of about $36,000 because of the incident. (AP Photo/Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)
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