The maintenance manager of a 674-million-gallon reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills is in hot water after he reportedly urinated in the water, causing what can only be called a “code yellow.” The manager, named by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokesman Tyrone Jue as Martin Sanchez, is now facing discipline for his actions.
Sanchez, who makes an astounding annual salary of $111,000, was apparently in line for a promotion before the incident, but now is facing a whopping week-long unpaid suspension instead.
San Fransisco relies on Sierra Nevada for its water supply, potentially putting more than 800,000 people at risk should the water be contaminated. Thankfully, the reservoir in question had been drained for maintenance, and officials say that the public was never in danger of drinking Mr. Sanchez’s urine.
Though the amount of urine-per-glass would have been minute, it would have still required the reservoir to be drained. That would have caused hundreds of millions of gallons of water to be wasted.
A similar incident occurred last year in Oregon, when a 19 year year old urinated in a 35-million-gallon reservoir. After learning of the incident, officials in Portland, Oregon began dumping water into the sewer system, but the purge was slowed by heavy rains. As a result, the water was diverted to an empty reservoir and the city used the supply for non-drinking purposes. This was apparently the second time in two years that Portland had to empty a reservoir over “code yellow” concerns.
