Thank you for correcting some of the errors I pointed out, Mr. VanderHart. But deleting my comment seems a bit cowardly, don't you think?

Since you're taking orders directly from the water bureau's many, many, highly paid communications specialists, here are a few other things you might want to ask them about.

Perhaps they can explain to you why they're invoking the feds when EPA doesn't even claim jurisdiction over this any more. It's the state health authority that took over the crypto issue when the EPA gave it primacy a few years back. The Oregon Legislature approved this move with the stated purpose of saving Oregon's open-air systems like Bull Run. But once the Oregon Health Authority got hold of the legislation, it turned into a free-for-all for Portland's big engineering companies. And suddenly the gloves came off--literally, in the sense of PWB water testers refusing to prevent false positives by wearing sterile gloves--and we got the sketchiest testing methods that hundreds of millions can buy, without even the ability to tell pathogenic from nonpathogenic strains. And lo, and behold, Portland's big engineering companies get to build an expensive treatment plant! That they've been planning to build all along. And charging the public to research and consult on all along.

Yes, there's too much BS in Portland's water. And some of it indeed has to do with rats. With all those piles, good thing PWB can count on the Merc to bring shovels.