Low-Flow Toilets Cause San Francisco Sewers to Back Up

by Dave Blount | March 1, 2011 12:37 pm

When it comes to the fundamentals of civilized life — plumbing, for example — eco-moonbattery doesn’t come cheap[1]:

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.

That’s okay — so long as it allows eco-totalitarians to save the environment with their Al Gore toilets.

On tips from wingmann, Kenneth, J, lunaticcringeradio, Cargo Pilot, and SR. Cross-posted at Moonbattery[2].