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Low-flow toilets cause a stink in SF
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | February 28, 2011 | Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: democrats; flush; liberalidiots; liberals; lowflushtoilets; plumbing; sewage; stink; toilets
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To: lacrew

That would be true in most cities, but people don’t use showers or washing machines in SF.


21 posted on 02/28/2011 6:49:18 AM PST by wolfman23601
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To: artichokegrower
Feb 24, 2011: No wonder Tenderloin needs public toilets [excerpt] "It sounds like a no-brainer. The Tenderloin needs more bathrooms.

"Everybody who walks through here says it smells like urinal," said Dina Hilliard, interim executive director of the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Actually, it smells worse than that. SF Clean City, which does yeoman work cleaning Tenderloin streets, charted the "incidents of human waste and urine," between January and July of last year. Including data from the Department of Public Works, the totals ranged from 600 to 800 incidents a month.

And yet, with all the service organizations in the neighborhood - offering everything from counseling to drug treatment, housing advocacy and free meals - almost none of them provide a supervised public toilet.....

But Hilliard, who has lived in the Tenderloin for 12 years, says when her group surveyed Tenderloin residents they found that "not acknowledging the impact of the food lines in the neighborhood" was one of the top complaints.

"I just find it offensive," said Hilliard. "They are willing to serve food, but not deal with the impact. It is left for the residents, and particularly children, to walk through feces because these groups are turning a blind eye to the problem." [end excerpt]

22 posted on 02/28/2011 6:50:31 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: GlockThe Vote
Why can’t these morons just leave things alone that we know work perfectly fine?

Because they don't know how to do anything constructive so they go into government.

23 posted on 02/28/2011 6:52:15 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Obviously what they need to do now is to legislate another new generation of toilets that have a microprocessor gizmo in it that flushes n number of times in proportion to the payload.

Everyone gets to feel ecologically superior, and GE gets to get in on the eco-toilet scam.

24 posted on 02/28/2011 6:52:34 AM PST by OKSooner (Obama confessed "his muslim faith" on the George Stephanopolous show on September 7th, 2008.)
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To: SampleMan
SF deserves every bad consequence they get.

. . .and does California. Do hope 'they' pay for them, of course. . .and not 'we'. (As they are hoping...)

25 posted on 02/28/2011 6:53:09 AM PST by cricket (Osama - NOT made in the USA. . . .and Obama, not made in the USA either.. .)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
low-flow toilets

The idea looked soooooo good on paper!

Paper bags.

The idea looked soooooo good on paper!

Plastic bags.

The idea looked soooooo good on paper!

CFL light bulbs.

The idea looked soooooo good on paper!

Ethanol.

The idea looked soooooo good on paper!


26 posted on 02/28/2011 6:53:23 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: cricket
. . .they have helped trim San Francisco's annual water consumption by about 20 million gallons.

That is nothing. That is the equivalent normal annual usage of 1,100 people.

27 posted on 02/28/2011 6:53:27 AM PST by D Rider
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
You have brightened my day.I just love it when the law of unintended consequences comes full circle and bites the un thinking eco Nazis on the a$$. no doubt the poor long suffering US taxpayer will get gouged again to do something about it. How much money is that 20 million gallons worth per gal..
28 posted on 02/28/2011 6:54:21 AM PST by mongo141
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To: smokingfrog

>> They obviously need to switch to composting toilets.

Is it part of the operating procedure of a composting toilet to get up after you’re done and smile at yourself in the mirror? :-)


29 posted on 02/28/2011 6:55:18 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I can’t think of a better place - and I hope their gasoline prices skyrocket to $5.00 a gallon - environazis!!!!


30 posted on 02/28/2011 6:56:52 AM PST by ZULU (No nation which ever attempted to tolerate Islam, escaped total Islamization.)
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To: TomGuy

>> The idea looked soooooo good on paper!

Cut it out, will ya? We’re trying to use less paper here.


31 posted on 02/28/2011 6:57:09 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: dfwgator
...BaaaWOOOSH!

That's what SF needs.

32 posted on 02/28/2011 6:57:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Had a hippie neighbor back in the 70s who insisted on re-using all the gray water for his garden and such.

Clogged up his septic system since only the toilet went into it and had to get it replaced a second time after half a dozen years. The extra water does help. All the Tofu and bean sprouts probably didn’t help either.


33 posted on 02/28/2011 6:57:23 AM PST by Malsua
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Ahhh - the stench that is Koli-fo-nya. You can almost smell it from here. I thought it was the unwashed hippie leftists that stunk. Come to find out it is just their waste, a synonym for their legislative intellect.


34 posted on 02/28/2011 6:58:04 AM PST by RobertClark (On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Low flow...I don't like the sound of that!
35 posted on 02/28/2011 6:58:19 AM PST by NordP (COMMON SENSE CONSERVATIVES - Love of Country, Less Govt, Stop Spending, No Govt Run Health Care!!!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

San Francisco, have fun reaping what you have sown!


36 posted on 02/28/2011 6:59:46 AM PST by NRA1995 ("In [Mexican] border, we are asking, who are you?" President Calderon of Mexico)
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To: TomGuy

And they all failed....but someone made a lot of money while we jumped through hoops and paid through the nose.


37 posted on 02/28/2011 6:59:58 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: dfwgator

When I read the article, I was envisioning the fountain in the title shot dropping when he flushed the toilet.


38 posted on 02/28/2011 7:00:04 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Low-flow toilets cause a stink
Nowhere near the stink cause by the "no-flow" type.

39 posted on 02/28/2011 7:01:00 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: vanilla swirl

SF has always been full of $h*t, how can they tell any difference?


40 posted on 02/28/2011 7:02:35 AM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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