What's REALLY in Our Drinking Water?

Portland, Oregon is dumping 38 million gallons of water after a teenager peed into an open reservoir. The public is outraged, and the city decided it's the right decision, but is the water actually still safe to drink? Trace did some digging to figure out if this is really a safety hazard, and figure out what else is likely in the Mt. Tabor Reservoir.

Read More:
Portland has a schedule to replace its open finished drinking water reservoirs with enclosed storage by December 31, 2020
"A finished drinking water reservoir contains water that has been through all the treatment steps required by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and can be delivered to the public without further treatment."

One Man's Pee Pushes Portland To Flush 38 Million Gallons Of Water
"Though they concede it's unlikely the public was endangered, officials in Portland, Ore., have decided to drain 38 million gallons of water from a reservoir after a young man was observed urinating into it on Wednesday."

Oregon Drought Watch

Here's How Long That Teen Would Have to Pee in the Portland Reservoir to Make It Unsafe to Drink
"A teenager urinated into one of the city's drinking water reservoirs the other day. That's gross, sure, and aggravating—what a brat!"

What Contaminates Are in Water
"The sources of drinking water generally include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells."

Portland's Water System

Drinking Water Contaminants
"National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs or primary standards) are legally enforceable standards that apply to public water systems."

Portland, Ore., is dumping 38 million gallons of drinking water because of a urinating teenager.
"It took one teenager urinating in a reservoir for the city of Portland, Ore., to dump enough water to fill about 57 Olympic-size swimming pools, even though the water was deemed to be safe."

Portland will flush 38 million gallons of water after man urinates in Mt. Tabor Reservoir
"Portland administrators will flush 38 million gallons of water from Mt. Tabor Reservoir 5 after a 19-year-old man urinated in the city's drinking supply."

Bottled Water Regulation and the FDA

Watch More:
How Much Water Should We Drink?
TestTube Wild Card
Is Bottled Water Better Than Tapped?

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[SangMitang]

Instead of dumping, they should ship it to places actually in need of clean fresh water where the residents aren't complete morons.

[yagimaynee]

0:18 why is it that easy to put something in a water reservoir to begin with

[dakotagau]

How about you just filter it again when it leaves a reservoir?

[Rey_Buz]

"Water that you drink today has already been drunk before." 

[Linkous]

"I ain't drinkin' that water! Now off to the public pool!"

[navtium]

Are they going to charge the offenders with the full price of the water dumping and re-filling?

[Patri_Fides]

Oh yeah, don't forget about FLUORIDE and LITHIUM. And I'm not talking about "safe" amounts.

[JoeGP]

i think the solution is to remove the security cameras

[IAmNumber]

As I opened this video I thought to myself, Like birds don't shit in open reservoirs."

[KieranMayer]

It's pretty pathetic that we're dumping millions of litres of perfectly fine drinking water, yet nearly a billion people don't have access to clean water.

[DrZpook]

Is the youtube screen middle size bigger than before?

[haiggoh]

I really don't get it, the water in the reservoirs that later comes out of the tap is stored open without a cover? How stupid is that? One guy peeing it not the problem but all the birds pooping into it certainly does make me feel uncomfortable. It should have been a no-brainer to cover these reservoirs from the get-go

[TheWolfHowling]

If the urine infused water is "no longer fit for human consumption", surely the could use it for irrigating crops on local area farms, watering parks and gardens, use it in water features or in manufacturing processes or as a coolant for machinery. There are so many things that humanity does with dihydrogen monoxide other than drink it

[WCepheiHD]

Should do a vid about fluoride in the water!

[AhmadAboulFarag]

In Egypt we drink 50% HCL, 20% Dust, 10% Bacteria that can survive HCL and 19% normal contamination (poop, factory waste, nuclear waste...etc) 1% water.

Beautiful this country of ours...:)

[GreenJanuary]

When you say "dumped", what exactly do you mean? Yeah its a waste of money to filter, store and transfer water but the water dumped will eventually get used in one way or another.

[BadJellyman]

Man, I couldn't care less what's in my water. I've been drinking it all my life and been just fine.

[davidrobert]

What about public swimming pools? They have to be at least 25% piss, 25% chlorine, 50% water and no one has a problem

[desireewolf]

When you said "Because it doesn't even hurt anything ever" I laughed because I heard the sass lol

[ivancarbajal]

Please don't stop posting you're video's, they are so informational. (: