Teen's prank ruins millions of gallons of drinking water

Updated
Portland Reservoir To Be Flushed After Man Urinates In It
Portland Reservoir To Be Flushed After Man Urinates In It

Portland city officials are having to flush millions of gallons of treated reservoir water after a 19-year-old man allegedly relieved himself in a non-traditional location.


It happened around 1 o'clock Wednesday morning as three teens snuck into Portland's Reservoir 5, which holds some of the city's drinking water. This security footage obtained by KGW-TV reportedly shows one of the guys leaning against the fence and presumably urinating.

Those three men were detained shortly after they were seen in the security footage, and KPTV reports hours later, Portland city officials decided to take the 50-million gallon reservoir offline and flush 38-million gallons.

The Portland Water Bureau there's little risk to the public's health but bureau administrator David Shaff says, "Our customers have an expectation that their water is not deliberately contaminated. We have the ability to meet that expectation."

This kind of incident has happened once before. KOIN reports the city flushed 8 million gallons of water in 2011 after a 21-year-old man urinated in another reservoir.

The Oregonian reports that previous episode was said to have cost $35,000, but KATU reports this most recent incident won't cost the city anything seeing that city employees are already scheduled to work.

Portland police cited all three men for trespassing and cited one of the men for public urination. The security footage will be reviewed by the district attorney's office and those men could face criminal charges.

Advertisement