Low-flow toilets cause a stink in SF
San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.
Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.
Glad I'm not a Giants fan.
The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.OK, lots of more chemicals in my water...and this is to save what?
Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite - better known as bleach - to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city's treated water before it's dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.
That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year...
...As for whether the supposedly environmentally friendly, low-flow toilets are worth the trouble? Well, according to Jue, they have helped trim San Francisco's annual water consumption by about 20 million gallons.
I looked up the population of the City by the Bay...as of last year it's around 815000. So at the cost of over 100 million dollars, a screwed up sewage system and the Giants playing their home games with a rotten egg smell, we've saved around 24.5 gallons of water a year per resident...that's around two gallons a month or .67 gallons a day.
Where do we get these genius public servants...
Best one I've read in a long time!
ReplyDeleteGood to know I still got it somewhere! :<)
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