It was a casual, relaxing Saturday evening. That is, until this announcement flashed over thousands of PDX Twitter clients, and pandemonium struck. The announcement?
MayorSamAdams: DRINKING WATER ALERT: Selected customers need to boil water for one minute: http://www.portlandonline.com/water/.
And with that, thousands of water customers west of the Willamette River were informed that they shouldn’t drink that vaunted PDX tap water after all…
It took us all a while to figure out just who was affected, thanks to incomprehensible maps, a listing of water districts most of us had never heard of before (Burlington? Palatine? Valley View?), and a MIA Portland Water Bureau online presence. (Although I did my bit to pass along useful information at first as I discovered it. Look for my bill soon, CoP…!) It also didn’t help matters when we discovered that while the first test had revealed the presence of e Coli in Reservoir 3 at Washington Park on Thursday and a second test confirmed it Friday, the general public itself didn’t get to hear the news until Saturday evening — and I’m betting most of us heard it via Twitter, no?
If you haven’t yet heard the news, well — here’s a listing of links:
Google News roundup of Portland Water crisis
Here’s a link to the clearest annotated map available, and much more accessible than the muck originally passed along by the Portland Water Bureau:
KPTV-12 – Map of Affected Area
And now that we know what the situation is, it’s time to break out the color commentary (most via Twitter):
Portland Water Use Warning | SpoofTimes.com
An age-old discovery was made again today as residents of Portland, Oregon and surrounding areas were told to boil their water, or find alternative beverages to consume. Beer, used as a microbial resistant beverage for hundreds of years, became the immediate drink of choice.
From Twitter (yes, I’ll lead with my own bon mot!):
- ourpdx: PDX needs to unite in solidarity behind our water-deprived west side brethren: let’s *all* start drinking wine/beer/gin/bourbon, shall we?
- sasquatcha: Cocktail shakers coming to a standstill at bars across northwest #pdx due to contaminated ice. Oh, the humanity!
- Christopher O’Connor: Quickly Commissioner Leonard! Grab your scuba gear and harpoon gun and get into that reservoir! #PDXwater
- annargriff: Forget boiling water. PDX water customers should start a special savings accounts ASAP to prepare for how much bills will soon rise. (yes, that’s Oregonian columnist Anna Griffin)
I’m sure we’ll hear more about this in the days to come & the city may not like how they come off here, if my Twitter stream is any indication. I’m concerned about the time it took the City to make the official announcement. Others are wondering where a curiously-silent Water Bureau Chief Randy Leonard is, while the communicators in the crowd think the Water Bureau’s crisis communications team clearly took the holiday off (can you do that in this day and age??)
But for now? I’m sipping my bourbon neat until further notice…
{ 4 comments }
I’ll raise a glass to that;) (of anti-microbial beer, that is;).
I’m boiling water and stockpiling it, and drinking boxed wine for my hydration. Will this suffering never end?
I’ve been drinking coffee and ice water downtown all week. Guess I’ll be the test subject for y’all. Here’s to being Irish, and the ability to filter all forms of health-endangering beverages!
Questioning my fellow citizens’ ability to boil water. It’s right up there with ability to keep e.coli out of water supply in first place. (Rocket surgery is definitely involved in both.)
Comments on this entry are closed.