One Urination Defiles 38 Million Gallons of Water

Can it get any crazier? Nick Fish, the bureaucrat in charge of the Portland, Ore. water supply, has decided, with the help of some anonymous professional water experts, to drain the city's Mt. Tabor #5 reservoir because security cameras recorded an individual urinating in it last Wednesday morning. It's been pointed out that there's a pretty good chance other unpleasant things have found their way into the city water supply without catastrophic results but Mr. Fish plans on pulling the plug anyway. Let's say that two cups or so of urine splashed into the reservoir. That would mean about one part in 405 million parts. It would be a little like refusing a trip to China if there were two serial killers running around in the country. Anyway, as a practical matter, how about the Portland water ninnies dump a gallon of highly-chlorinated water in the reservoir in exactly the same spot that the kid did his pee thing? The addition would probably follow the same path as the urine molecules did, at least eventually. In a couple of days that water would be OK for a shampoo or even a bourbon and branch.