THE CITY CAME under fire this past week after water bureau
technicians delayed a crucial second test of its reservoir system for
E. coli bacteria on Thanksgiving.
A routine water test was taken from one of the city’s two Washington
Park reservoirs on Wednesday, November 25, testing positive for E. coli
on Thanksgiving morning. But the bureau delayed taking a second
confirmation test until Friday, November 27, because of the holiday.
The second test came up positive on Saturday morning, and the city
issued a “boil water” alert for Westside residents via press release to
all local media.
Water Commissioner Randy Leonard admits the delay was a problem.
“I met with top management, I understood their rationale for
delaying the second test, but ordered them in the future to immediately
do the second test after the first one comes up positive,” he says.
“From now on it will never happen again.”
Nevertheless, there was widespread concern among Portlanders
returning to work this week about the slow pace at which they had
learned about the contamination.
“It would have been nice to have known about the outbreak before I
cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people on the Westside with E. coli
in the water,” right-wing radio host Victoria Taft told the
Mercury on Monday, November 30, although none of her guests
showed symptoms of having been infected, she said.
Leonard and Mayor Sam Adams now want to build a voluntary cell phone
database of citizen phone numbers so that everyone can be quickly
contacted in the future.
“This changeover has to happen,” said Adams, at a press conference
on Sunday night to lift the “boil water” alert. “This event and last
year’s inclement weather event show the need for us all to do
that.”
The city is now draining the reservoir and trying to determine the
source of the outbreak, but Leonard is keen to minimize any panic.
“E. coli is a common occurrence,” says Leonard. “It’s obviously
frightening, but it’s not uncommon. We’ve gotten 19 positive hits since
1990, in nearly 20 years, and this is the first one where the second
test has come back positive.”
I drank a gallon just before the alert, and kept forgetting to not use it for my teeth.
Didn’t get shit. (no pun intended)
The City can save a bundle on the Cell Phone Database, skip the privacy concerns and use an existing technology that they already subscribe to… FlashAlert.net
http://flashalert.net/
Other cities in Oregon have thought FlashAlert.Net a good idea:
City of Albany
City of Battle Ground
City of Beaverton
CIty of Canby
City of Cornelius
City of Damascus
City of Fairview
City of Gresham
City of Happy Valley
City of Hillsboro
City of Lake Oswego
City of Milwaukie
City of North Plains
City of Salem
City of Sherwood
City of St Helens
City of Troutdale
City of Tualatin
City of Vancouver
City of Wilsonville
City of Wood Village
Portland Office of Emergency Management
Portland Parks & Recreation
Portland Planning Bureau
Portland Water Bureau (http://flashalert.net/news.html?id=1240)
Portland Water Bureau did sign up around the 1st of November. All they have to do is print the information for residents to subscribe on their water bill.
Is that so hard? Guess so…
They have a multimillion dollar boondoggle of a billing system. Not only can it not bill correctly, it can not do reverse call back?
Maybe they should work with the 911 system that has an efficient reverse call system. I am sure it would be a lot cheaper.
So i guess as far as the WATER BUREAU is concerned, Thanksgiving takes priority over our water system being contaminated with e.coli. Nice.