text: Water from the Mt. Tabor Reservoir system tested clean of urine-related toxins Thursday, news that came as no surprise to Water Bureau administrators yet also did not change their decision to dump 38 million gallons after a man peed in the Southeast Portland storage pool a day earlier. 
   
   City leaders said they were going ahead with plans to drain the water in Reservoir 5 to ensure no health risks to Portland water customers. The decision to empty and clean the reservoir has drawn mention of Portland -- much of it disbelieving or out-and-out derisive -- by national and international news media. 
   
   The chief point of contention: Reservoir 5 can hold up to 50 million gallons of water. The typical adult human bladder can hold two or so cups of urine. So the possibility someone getting sick because of Wednesday morning’s incident is, as Water Bureau officials acknowledge, slight at best. 
   
   “From a public health protection standpoint, it’s not necessary to get rid of the water,” said Anna Harding, co-director of the School of Biological and Population Health Sciences at Oregon State University. “The urine, which has very few microorganisms to begin with, would be very, very, very, very diluted.” 
   
   Still, city officials say, any risk is too much. 
   
   “The professionals told me this is the way to go. I’m following their advice. We’ve got plenty of water, so we will go ahead and take the safest course,” said City Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the utility. “People can feel free to second guess, but this is not a debate. This is the best public health decision.” 
   
   The second-guessing came from far and wide Thursday, including the leading advocate of a May ballot measure to switch control of the city’s water away from the City Council to an independently elected water district board. 
   
   Kent Craford, a former lobbyist for large industrial water customers and co-petitioner of the ballot measure, said he thinks flushing 38 million gallons is a bad idea. 
   
   “It’s a public relations decision," he said. "I wouldn’t waste all that water, all that money.” 
   
   Craford would not speculate whether the water board he’s proposing would feel the same. 
   
   “That would be up to the board, up to the managers,” he said. “Our belief is that a water district board will make better decisions than the City Council, and that they would ensure better management than what we have right now.” 
   
   The debate about dumping or keeping the water is uniquely Portland with roots in the city’s multi-year battle against new federal mandates on open-air reservoirs. Portland leaders opted to stop fighting last year, and Mt. Tabor’s open reservoir system must be disconnected from the city water system by the end of 2015. The open-air reservoir at Washington Park must go offline by the end of 2016. 
   
   “Politics had no impact on our decision in this case,” Fish said. “But this is Mt. Tabor and the reservoirs, and everything that happens up there is evaluated through a political prism. I know people are going to second guess. That’s their right.” 
   
   -- Anna Griffin 
   
   
   
   ||||| Update: Kavanaugh and Vocativ are now reporting that the paperwork on this case lists an incorrect last name for the man accused of urinating in the reservoir. His name is Dallas Swonger. 
   
   
   
   Dallas Delynn says he didn’t urinate in Portland’s drinking supply, but rather on a wall next to it. 
   
   The 18-year-old caught on video hanging around the Mt. Tabor Reservoir system early Wednesday morning has granted his first interview to the online news magazine Vocativ. 
   
   In the free-flowing, profanity-laced conversation with former Oregonian reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Delynn said he did not urinate in the water: 
   
   “Everybody thinks it’s funny and a joke and I’m going to be on the news,” he says, flicking the cigarette butt into a nearby bush. “It’s no … joke, dude. I don’t want people thinkin’ that Dallas is dumb ass because he pissed in the … water. In our drinking water. Yeah, that’s … awesome. I mean, wouldn’t you be pissed about that?” 
   
   Instead, Delynn said he urinated on the wall next to Reservoir 5. 
   
   Delynn and two friends were given written citations for trespassing – Delynn also was written up for urinating somewhere other than a park bathroom – and barred from Mt. Tabor for 30 days. Portland Water Bureau officials are working with the Multnomah County District Attorney to determine whether there are criminal charges to be filed. 
   
   
   
   Delynn also told Kavanaugh he thinks it's silly to flush 38 million gallons of water: 
   
   "Like, how they can do that?” says Delynn. “How can they be like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna flush all that water.’ Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I’ve see hella dead animals in there. ... I mean, really, dude?” 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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   Dallas Swonger wants the world to just know one thing. 
   
   “I didn’t piss in the fucking water,” he says, pulling a drag off a Newport cigarette. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Dallas Swonger 
   
   The Portland teen is in the hot seat after surveillance video supposedly captured him taking a leak in a city reservoir early Wednesday morning, prompting officials to flush 38 million gallons of drinking water down the drain. 
   
   For those more visually inclined, that’s enough H20 to fill about 57 Olympic-size swimming pools. Or 304 million tallboy cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. 
   
   “Yeah, it’s fucking retarded dude,” Swonger says. 
   
   In an exclusive, expletive-filled interview with Vocativ outside his mother’s home Thursday, the 18-year-old insisted that his piss never trickled into Portland’s drinking supply. He also lamented the looming reality that this story will make him a national (and international) laughing stock. 
   
   “Everybody thinks it’s funny and a joke and I’m going to be on the news,” he says, flicking the cigarette butt into a nearby bush. “It’s no fuckin’ joke, dude. I don’t want people thinkin’ that Dallas is a dumb ass because he pissed in the fuckin’ water. In our drinking water. Yeah, that’s fucking awesome. I mean, wouldn’t you be pissed about that?” 
   
   The night that launched the whiz-seen-round-the-world had started off on a more feel-good note for Swonger. He says he had moved back to town that very day from St. Helens, which is 30 miles north of Portland, where he had been living with his dad. Eager to shred with some friends, he and two buddies went to skateboard at Mount Tabor Park after hours, which is home to three of the city’s five uncovered drinking water reservoirs – and a handful of excellent hill runs. After bombing down the park’s western slope, nature began to call Swonger. It was around 1 a.m. and the three friends, along with two other people they met in the park, were near one of the reservoirs. 
   
   “I was like, ‘Dudes I have to piss so bad,’” he says. “So I just went over to the wall [of the reservoir].” 
   
   “I leaned up against the wall and pissed on it,” he says. “Right there on the wall, dude. I don’t know else how to describe it.” 
   
   Water Bureau officials, however, insist Swonger took a leek in the drink. “When you see the video, he’s leaning right up because he has to get his little wee wee right up to the iron bars,” bureau administrator Davd Shaff told the Oregonian. “There’s really no doubt what he’s doing.” 
   
   Water Bureau security and Portland Police officers later stopped Swonger and his two friends, identified as Trey McDaniel and Daniel McDonald, and cited all three with trespassing. Swonger was also cited for public urination. 
   
   While human pee is not a health hazard – and scores of animals piss, shit and die in Mount Tabor’s reservoirs every year – the city says it will dump a total of 38 million gallons of water, even though test results on Thursday showed no signs of water contamination. 
   
   “Like, how they can do that?” says Swonger. “How can they be like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna flush all that water.’ Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I’ve see hella dead animals in there. Like dead squirrels and shit. I mean, really, dude?” 
   
   Yes, really. In 2011, city officials flushed 7.8 million gallons of reservoir water from Mount Tabor after another man decided to unzip and rip. The Water Bureau also says that it intends to pursue additional charges against Swonger. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Mount Tabor Reservoir: The city is flushing 38 million gallons of drinking water down the drain because it says Dallas peed in the open reservoir. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola 
   
   The whole ordeal has Swonger pretty rattled. “Dallas is really bummed out about all of it,” says his skateboard buddy McDonald, who we reached by phone on Thursday. “He’s a really good guy at heart. He just doesn’t make the best decisions. Honestly, he has the potential to do really good.” 
   
   As Swonger stood outside his family’s yellow, single-story house talking to a reporter, his mother suddenly opened the front door. “Dallas, don’t do anything stupid,” she says, ushering him indoors. She adds: “I’m sorry, he just graduated from high school. He’s trying to get his stuff together.” 
   
   Swonger stops at the front door and turns around. “Sorry, dude,” he says. “I don’t know, dude. I don’t know what’s going on.”
target: – The Portland teen accused of peeing in a city reservoir on Wednesday insists he didn't do it—in a relatively NSFW defense. "Yeah, it's f---ing retarded, dude," 18-year-old Dallas Swonger tells Vocativ in what the site calls an "expletive-filled interview" given as Swonger smoked a Newport cigarette. "I didn't piss in the f---ing water." He explains that he did urinate, after a night of skateboarding at Mount Tabor Park, but he did so against the wall of the reservoir, not into the reservoir. "I was like, 'Dudes I have to piss so bad.' So I just went over to the wall. I leaned up against the wall and pissed on it. Right there on the wall, dude. I don’t know else how to describe it." Officials beg to differ (a Water Bureau official got very specific about it, saying that surveillance video showed Swonger making sure "to get his little wee wee right up to the iron bars"), and thus decided to dump 38 million gallons of water, but Swonger notes that even if his urine had made it into the water, he doesn't see what the big deal is. "Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I've see hella dead animals in there. Like dead squirrels and s---. I mean, really, dude?" Vocativ also got amusing quotes from Swonger's mom ("I’m sorry, he just graduated from high school. He’s trying to get his stuff together") and one of the friends skateboarding with him that night ("He just doesn’t make the best decisions. Honestly, he has the potential to do really good"). Possible criminal charges are still pending, the Oregonian notes. The paper also reports that the water tested clean of urine-related toxins, but all 38 million gallons will still be dumped.