Portland Or Newspapers

Drinking water? We've got it covered

The Eugene Water and Electric Board can enjoy a few moments of superiority while news of a Portland resident relieving himself into a drinking water reservoir continues to make headlines.

On Thursday, even newspapers in Great Britain had picked up the story of the Portland Water Bureau’s decision to drain its 7.8 million gallon open Mount Tabor reser­voir after a camera caught an image of a man urinating into it early Wednesday.

While such a small amount of urine poses no health risk to those who might drink the water, bureau officials emptied it anyway, at an expected cost of about $36,000, according to news reports.

We don’t have to worry about that possibility here, and not only because Eugene residents “are too smart to pee in their drinking water,” EWEB spokesman Joe Harwood said.

EWEB, a publicly owned utility celebrating its centennial this year, doesn’t allow the opportunity. All 27 of EWEB’s reservoirs, which collectively hold 98 million gallons, are capped in order to keep them contaminant-free, Harwood said.

The Portland Water Bureau has been under pressure for years from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cover its open reservoirs. According to the bureau’s website, it will be spending millions in coming years to comply with that federal clean water mandate.

EWEB, on the other hand, has been so concerned about water quality that it once tried to fence off the top of its College Hill reservoir, concerned that contaminants might get into the water through the expansion cracks in the concrete, Harwood said.

For decades, the top of that reservoir has been a popular community gathering spot where people come to stargaze, sunbathe, shoot hoops and otherwise hang out.

That fencing effort failed because of intense community lobbying. EWEB eventually opted to keep the reservoir open while protecting the expansion cracks with special covers.

The utility’s other covered reservoirs all are fenced, Harwood said.

Kimberly Jensen's Blog: Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury Part ...

The Evening Telegram began its extensive coverage on the front page. "One glance at the courtroom, packed to suffocation with women who wanted to see and hear her, and Marcelle Bortell, of the underworld, exclaimed 'Not for me!' and fled. And then, in her absence, she was tried on a charge of keeping a disorderly house by the first woman jury in Oregon." The "scene" was one of a kind, the paper noted. "So great was the crowd of women who wedged their way into the dingy, smelly courtroom of Municipal Judge Tazwell that the building threatened to collapse." The police "weeded out" men in the chairs but women stayed. "The lobby was thronged, the office downstairs was filled and a crowd assembled outside. Several times during the afternoon yesterday the floor quivered under the strain, but there was no accident." The Telegram reported on the dress and deportment of the mostly "middle-aged, matronly women" who remained in their seats after Judge Tazwell admonished that there would be frank language and information during the trial. "In court, a spade is called a spade," he said, "and things are called by their right names." The women on the jury (the Telegram referred to them as "juroresses") were sworn in and the trial began. Defense attorney W. E. Farrell presented the defendant, Marcelle Bortell, as a woman with whom all the other women in the courtroom could relate. She was so disturbed by the assembled crowd that she could not appear. "Remember, she is a woman -- weak-kneed, perhaps -- but a woman and she faltered when she came to the door of the courtroom. She had the chagrin and fright any lady would have." Deputy city attorney Ray Sullivan used gender differently and emphasized the differences between the defendant and the women in the jury and audience. "A woman of the underworld . . . it one of the boldest creatures in the world and would not be afraid of facing a jury. A woman can size up one of this character instinctively--that's why the defendant did not appear. The question now involved is whether a jury of women will convict a woman of the underground and you will have to put your sentiments aside and remember the facts." Bortell was charged with keeping a house of prostitution. "It was one of those cases so common in the Municipal Court," the Telegram reported, "distinctly nasty in details, but the audience was game and remained.

Portland's 1st newspapers, Portland Journal (1854-1856) and Jay County Democrat (1856-1859)

Insiders' Guide to Portland, Oregon, Including the Metro Area and Vancouver, Washington

The Washington newspaper, a publication dedicated to the study and improvement of journalism in Washington

Moon Handbooks Portland

Frommer's Portable Portland