(Newser)
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You pee in one little reservoir, and the next thing you know, 7.8 million gallons of drinking water are being drained. Yesterday’s incident, in which a 21-year-old man was caught urinating in one of Portland’s uncovered reservoirs by a surveillance camera, will end up costing the Portland Water Bureau more than $36,000, the Oregonian reports. Though experts say the urine actually didn’t pose much of a health risk—it’s fairly sterile—the bureau administrator sums up his decision thusly: “Do you want to drink pee?”
But one official says he is actually more worried about the unknown items tossed into the water by the four pals who were there with him—because (and don’t think about this too hard if you’re currently drinking a glass of water) there are presumably a lot of animals and birds that also pee, poop, or even die in the same water, none of which causes it to be drained. The urinator in question says he thought the reservoir, which provides water to a majority of city dwellers, was a sewage treatment plant. (In other unusual water-related news...)
