Posted on 02/28/2011 6:33:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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.
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.
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.
Not everybody thinks it's a good idea.
A Don't Bleach Our Bay alert has just gone out from eco-blogger Adam Lowry who argues the city would be much better off using a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide - or better yet, a solution that would naturally break down the bacteria.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
more unintended consequences..........
I’ve seen this photo of the Al Gore toilet before. Very impressive...
Future historians will look back at us here in the late 20th early 21st century period and wonder if there was a massive dose of LSD that somehow got spread thru the entire planetary water supply.............
Easy solution: ask everyone to flush their high efficiency, water saving, toilets thrice each time, thereby providing enough water to purge the sewer lines.
Al: Bud, sit down. Let me tell you the story of the Ferguson. Now these babies were made in Maine, you know, at the little Ferguson factory. It’s the Stradivarius of toilets. And my Dad could play it like a violin.
Yup, I’ll never forget the time my dad took me to Maine to visit the factory. I had to go to the bathroom. And I begged him to pull into a truck stop. He said no, wait until we get there! It’ll be worth it! It was!
Bud: Excuse me, Dad, but a toilet is a toilet.
Al: (grimacing) Bud... the toilets today aren’t worthy of the name! They come in designer colors... they’re too low! When you flush them, they make this weak, almost apologetic sound. But not the Ferguson. It only comes in white. And when you flush it... BaaaWOOOSH! That’s a man’s flush, Bud. A Ferguson says, “I’m a toilet. Sit down and give me your best shot.” Oh, if only a Ferguson could speak, the tales it would tell!
I design sewer lines....I’m not sure about ‘excess sludge buildup’, since there shouldn’t be any ‘build up’.
I think what they are trying to explain is that the concentration of waste and gases is higher, now that we are using less water. But, I’m not sure I’m gonna hitch my wagon to that theory just yet. Toilets contribute very little water to sewer...its the showers and washing machines and dishwashers which contribute most of the water.
We typically have these odor problems when sewer is ‘splashed’ around...perhaps where a pressurized line discharges into a manhole, to go to gravity flow. Or, we have these problems when a subdivision does not build out nearly as quickly as planned; and, sewer stays in the pumping station for several days, before the water level gets high enough to activiate the pumps.
I suspect the problems in SF are much more traditional...and, they are using a ‘green screen’ to hide mistakes, and justify extra expenditures.
Backed up sewer systems and stagnant fecal matter under the streets. I bet that is great for the environment.
More like.......you get what you pay for when you hire or elect green Nazis to decision-making positions at any level of government. They are inherently unable to see a big picture. In fact, a big picture doesn't exist in their thought process at any time.
Could be worse. About a quarter of the residents of San Francisco use the sidewalk as a toilet.
LOL. . .and yes, think we all have. . .
Quick, someone suggest to SF that they set up a parrellel plumbing system using bay saltwater, for use in toilets. Then they can use all of the water they want. They will spend at least a billion dollars doing that.
SF deserves every bad consequence they get.
Why can’t these morons just leave things alone that we know work perfectly fine?
Wonder how much water saved by 'slow toilets' is offset by illegals and their consumption. Better 'fast toilets' and more people using their OWN resources.
Wonder how much water saved by 'slow toilets' is offset by illegals and their consumption. Better 'fast toilets' and more people using their OWN resources.
Everyone knows the results of government toilets and they want to run health care?
You think it’s deep now, just wait!
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