Big Stink By The Bay

I must admit a certain amount of schadenfreude when two liberal causes do battle, when the consequences of one impact upon the other. It is even more fun when both are environmental causes...

The most recent example happens in San Francisco (of course!):

"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."

Ahhhh, unintended consequences...the best part of environmental schadenfreude! Low flow and no-water toilets were supposed to save money (water bills) and save the environment. Well, $100 million later we know they don't save money. How about the environment? Not so much....

"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."

So SF uses less water, but pays millions more for infrastructure, and will end up pouring poisonous bleach into the sewers. I guess the best you can say was that some enviros had a good feeling in their soul for at least a little while.

But in hindsight perhaps it would have cost less and been better for the environment if the city had just kept it's regular toilets....