Portland: City Of Water

I should have a picture of a Portland water fountain, but I'm too lazy to go to Google Images. At least this is a picture of a local utility thingy. 

Portland is known for having public drinking fountains called "Benson Bubblers," named after a temperance crusader over 100 years ago. He thought if people had clean drinking water they wouldn't get drunk.

I see where Simon Benson might be coming from with that back in the early 1900s, but I don't think such addresses the modern problem. Anyway, pot is now legal, so that changes things considerably.

The days of clean drinking water are over. Kaput. Finito. Portland's water now has dangerous levels of cryptosporidium and a treatment plant is needed for drinking water. Currently the water isn't filtered, just doused with chlorine and ammonia. Portland was one of the last US cities not to have to treat the water for this bacteria, being issued a variance by the federal government.

This summer seems hotter, smokier, more politically insane than any other I've ever experienced. The cryptosporidium is just the icing on the apocalyptic cake.

I warn myself not to get addicted to chaos.

I suspect I will have a good night's sleep and return to the core mission of stoke proclamation for this blog.